The sloth bear was with its young club cooling off by the water when the tiger appeared.
Two titans of the safari had an epic 15 minutes battle after one stepped into the other’s territory.
The tense face-off between a tiger and a bear was caught on camera as the pair clashed in a national park in India.
The sloth bear was with its young cub, cooling off by the water when the tiger appeared.
In a desperate bid to protect her child the sloth tried to stand her ground but the tiger attacked.
Footage recorded the two beasts fighting in the Tadoba National Park in Maharashtra.
Akshay Kumar, the chief naturalist at Bamboo Forest Safari Lodge, tells NDTV in India, that the tiger is seven-year-old Matkasur, a dominant male from the park who had marked the water as his territory.
“The tiger attacked the bear more than five minutes,” he said.
“It went after the sloth bear but she kept charging in order to protect her cub.
“It went on for 15 minutes. The tiger was roaring. It was a severe fight.”
Both the tiger and sloth bear suffered injuries in the attack. The young cub ran away during the fight.
Mr Kumar, who shot the video, was leading a safari with tourists when they spotted the face-off between the bear and tiger.
