Bear vs tiger: Who came out on top?

Video shows a tiger and a sloth bear fighting in an Indian national park. Photo / AP Still

A true battle of the beasts took place in a national park in western India when a tiger picked a fight with a bear - and lost.

Video footage filmed by a group of visitors in Tadoba National Park in Maharashtra state, shows the two predators' fierce fight.

Witnesses say the fight began when the tiger attacked the bear, a female sloth bear with a cub, reports Daily Mail.

The tiger had reportedly been cooling itself in a watering hole when mother bear and her cub arrived.

The tiger, a male called Matkasur, is said to view the watering hole as it's territory and sought to defend it.

The video shows that the tiger initially had the upper paw, but it struggles to pin the bear down.

An expert says that the tiger would have had problems getting a proper grip of the sloth bear through her long fur, and roles are soon reversed.

"As you can see in the video, the sloth bear was so exhausted. They can't outrun tigers," Dr Anish Andheria, President of Wildlife Conservation Trust told NDTV.

"The only thing that saves the bear is the hair on the body, because tiger doesn't get a grip."

After a while, the sloth bear seems to become the more dominant in the fight, and is seen charging after the tiger even after it has escaped its grip.

The end of the film sees the tiger retreating after being chased away by the sloth bear.