During an afternoon safari in Tadoba National Park a few tourists witnessed a rare and lethal encounter between a tiger and a sloth bear. To their consternation, the two faced off in a vicious fight.

The video was shot by Akshay Kumar, the chief naturalist at Bamboo Forest Safari Lodge, who told NDTV that they came across a mother bear and her cub approaching a body of water in which a dominant male tiger was cooling off. The tiger attacked the mother, as her sub-adult cub looked on in agitation. To protect herself and her cub, the mother bear fought back viciously.

Luckily, despite the intensity of the battle, neither animal seemed to be severely injured. But the mother bear did keep her child safe.