Abstract:  An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the tear energy of unfilled and 25 phr carbon black-filled natural rubber with varying loading rates. The variation of the tear energy with far-field sample strain rate between 0.01 to 10 s−1 was found to be different from tensile strip and pure shear specimens. Above a sample strain rate of 10 s−1, the tear energy calculated from either specimen was comparable. The differences in the tear energy derived from the tensile strip and pure shear specimens were attributed to differences in the local crack tip stress state and strengthening of the material due to strain-induced crystallisation. Both of these factors resulted in crack speeds 3–4 times higher in the pure shear specimen as compared to the tensile strip specimen. Finite element analysis (FEA) indicated that fracture would initiate at the crack tip either when the strain energy density approached the material toughness or when the maximum principal stress and strain approached the material tensile strength and fracture strain, respectively. It was concluded that these parameters would be better than the tear energy in predicting fracture of natural rubber under dynamic loading.