Largest Individuals of any Species

[tigerluver]

Great data @peter.

The Duisburg male has enough data for us to estimate him in a few ways. His body length of 210 cm is the most important piece.

Based on this photo and the male's length:

*This image is copyright of its original author

I measured the female to be around 160 cm, which seems like a ~115 kg female basing off the slightly shorter female Jasmin and the STP tigresses. So the male is 1.31x the female's length and 1.32x the female's chest girth from examining the photo.

If I were to estimate the Duisburg male based on this female, we get:

Length based: 1.31^3 * 115 kg = 260 kg
Chest diameter based: 1.32^3 * 115 kg = 265 kg
 
Now with his body length I can apply some estimates from data of other male tigers.

Based on the STP males, isometrically scaling his 210 cm frame based on the average of 7 males of the study (avg. body length = 196 cm, avg. mass = 182 kg), he would weigh 224 kg. An issue with using the STP males is that the wild Amur seems have lost a lot of the robusticity found in captive Amurs and the rest of the tiger subspecies. In other words, STP males are very lanky compared to their captive Amur cousins, and the Duisburg male would likely be more like other captives Amurs rather than the wild STP males. The Duisburg male is also taller proportionately than the STP males.

To account for height in the equation, I used the following data. 6 STP males averaged 94 cm at the shoulder and weighed 184 kg. Isometrically estimating Mr. Duisburg from these numbers and his 110 cm height results in a mass of 295 kg. This somewhat accounts for the underestimation by the body length estimate. Combining both body length and height estimates gives a mass of 260 kg. Coincidentally on par with the estimate based on the female by his side. 

Based on some captive Amurs, the mass values are bit higher. Looking off the table @GuateGojira provided in the Amur tiger thread and the three males of Christiansen, I came up with a average body length and weight for captive Amurs where were as follows:

n = 6
Body length = 195 cm
Mass = 223 kg


Isometrically scaling the Duisburg male from these figures results in a mass of about 280 kg.

Had he had Bengal tiger proportions, he would likely be heavier and significantly so at 280-320 kg. Comparing him to Sauraha for example, shows a body length with the potential to harbor a 320 kg cat. The problems I see with using Bengal tigers for comparisons is that the Duisburg male for one, does not seem as bulky as Bengal tigers and the fact that he still is an Amur in the end, and would likely keep to their somewhat leaner built. 

I have to revisit the photos, however. In the latter two photos the Duisburg males look bulkier than the first photo. Measuring the chest diameter/body length ratio, he is at least 5% less bulky in the photo with the female than in the photos he was alone. Bulking him up in the photo analysis and comparing him with the female gives a chest diameter mass of 306 kg. Averaging this value with his presumably constant body length then gives an average mass of 283 kg.

All in all, isometry based on Amurs gave me a mass range of 260-280 kg for the the Duisburg male.

(I tried a new method of creating clear subtopics without needing subheading by bolding the first few words of the new subtopic. I hope it made the read easier.) Reply