Are felines stronger than canines?

Are felines stronger than canines? Are cats stronger than dogs? The answer depends on the species of feline and canine we are referring to. For instance the tiger is a feline. The French bulldog is a small, highly popular domestic canine. Which is the stronger! You get the obvious point. Conversely a large dog is much stronger than a typical domestic cat.

For instance, in the US, the coyote (a species of dog) kills many outside domestic and feral cats. Although some cats escape because of their athleticism, when a coyote has caught a feral cat there is no contest. The coyote is much stronger. Devestatingly so.

So indivial animal size clearly plays a big role in answering the question in the title to this article. Common sense I guess.

When you include the wild cat species, the largest cats are larger than the largest dogs and therefore on this basis cats are stronger than dogs. The wild dogs are considerably smaller than tigers but a pack of wild dogs can kill a tiger.

The largest domestic dog is probably the Great Dane which weighs a maximum of around 90 kilograms (male). The most common species of tiger (the biggest feline species), the Bengal tiger, weighs around 220 kilograms. The range of weights is around 175-260 kg. No contest in terms of the strength of individual animals because strength is aligned to body mass as there is more muscle in a larger animal.

So what type of muscles do canine and feline have? Cats have a preponderance of fast twitch muscles which allows them their extraordinary feats of jumping and fast acceleration. Cats are sprinters and gymnasts. Dogs are built for endurance. They are long distance runners and wear down prey rather than stalk and pounce like cats or outpace on speed alone (cheetah). Dogs have more slow twitch muscles than cats although the mix of fast and slow twitch muscles varies dependent on the breed of dog.

I have a page on a Eurasian lynx squaring up to a wolf in Belarus. The cat won it is reported. But in general wolves force lynx to disappear because wolves live in packs and lynx are solitary. Strength in numbers as they say. Click here to read the page if you like.

Conclusion: felines are not stronger than dogs but it depends on the species of feline and canine we are referring to.