Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill

Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - Printable Version

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RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - Pckts - 04-18-2020

(04-18-2020, 09:59 AM)GuateGojira Wrote:
(04-18-2020, 09:47 AM)Pckts Wrote: The Sauraha male has a 197 cm body, did you use a different Tiger?
Also which one had a 114cm shoulder height?
Also, is the Gaurs dimensions you used have a weight attached?
If so, was the 1106kg or a different amount?

Thanks for doing it btw.

Yes, Sauraha was 197 cm in head-body, but we must take in count that the biggest tiger ever recorded was of 221 cm in head-body "between pegs" (Brander, 1927).

The shoulder height of 114 cm came from two tigers, one measured by the Maharaja of Cooch Behar and the other from Mr Fred Shillingford, both taken "between pegs". The tallest tiger recorded by Brander was of 112 cm.

Some of them had, but only shoulder heights, and other only horn spread. For example, the heaviest bull recorded (2438 lb - 1106 kg) only shows a the horn spread, which was of 36 inches (91.4 cm), but no other measurement was available. It seems that only the Maharaha of Cooch Behar measured his animals but he did not weighed them.

That's essentially a combination of the longest and tallest Tigers in history compared to Gaur we can estimate of around 1100kg based off a combination of horn spread/weight and body dimensions from the Maharaja of Cooch Behar.
But unfortunately we dont know what those body dimensions actually convert to in body weight so it's a bit of a mish mosh all around. Still very much appreciated though.

Something to note, you posted the largest Kanha bull said to have been killed with a horn spread of 24", this bull above will have a spread of 12" more than that one.
Now I'm not sure the correlation of spread to weight but it's definitely something to keep in mind when thinking about how large a 1000kg Gaur would be.

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RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - parvez - 04-18-2020

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200543475_'Functional_shifting'_and_mechanism_of_tiger-predation_on_the_Indian_Rhinoceros

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RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - GuateGojira - 04-19-2020

(04-18-2020, 11:35 AM)Pckts Wrote: That's essentially a combination of the longest and tallest Tigers in history compared to Gaur we can estimate of around 1100kg based off a combination of horn spread/weight and body dimensions from the Maharaja of Cooch Behar.
But unfortunately we dont know what those body dimensions actually convert to in body weight so it's a bit of a mish mosh all around. Still very much appreciated though.

Something to note, you posted the largest Kanha bull said to have been killed with a horn spread of 24", this bull above will have a spread of 12" more than that one.
Now I'm not sure the correlation of spread to weight but it's definitely something to keep in mind when thinking about how large a 1000kg Gaur would be.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

I don't think that "mish mosh" will be the correct description. As you know, normally there is not a "biggest" specimen overall, somethimes the longest is not the tallest, or the heaviest. In the case of the tiger, yes the height was of other tiger, but if we use the height of the largest tiger of Brander this was of 109 cm, just 5 cm of diference from the tallest one overall, so the comparative image match perfectly. Now, on the gaur side, the biggest dimentions are of the same animal, so we are lucky of have such a big specimen. Sadly the Maharaha did not weighed his gaurs/buffaloes/rhinos.

On the horn length, it is interesting to see that Schaller quotes Rowland Ward for the biggest horn length and is of 31.5 inches, but the record gaur (in weight) had a larger horns length and there are other even larger! Where they measured in diferent form? I don't know. However, I don't think that there is a correlation between weight and horns now, because the biggest horn length for gaur that I have, which is of 37 in (94 cm), had a weight of "only" 1530 lb (694 kg). Other bull with a horn length of 36 in (91.4 cm) weighed 1700 lb (771 kg).

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - parvez - 04-23-2020

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/tigers-elephants-corbett-national-park-govt-study-1550103-2019-06-16

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - GuateGojira - 04-24-2020

(04-23-2020, 10:40 AM)parvez Wrote: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/tigers-elephants-corbett-national-park-govt-study-1550103-2019-06-16

Interesting article. A few quotes:

"A total of nine tigers, 21 elephants and six leopards were found dead from 2014 to May 31, 2019, due to infighting and clashes over issues related of mating, according to the study."

"Out of the total 36 cases for the three species, 21 were reported in case of wild elephants alone. However, a very surprising aspect was that around 60 per cent of wild elephant death cases (13) were due to attack by tigers mostly on young ones," it said.

Tigers killing and eating elephants, mostly young ones. It will be perfect if they could provide more details of these events.

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - parvez - 04-24-2020

https://iijls.com › currentissuePDF
Web results
Attack on Elephant by Tiger, A Choice of food or Struggle for Survival, Ecological Study in ...

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RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - parvez - 04-24-2020

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306038038_Attack_on_Elephant_by_Tiger_A_Choice_of_food_or_Struggle_for_Survival_Ecological_Study_in_Corbett_Tiger_Reserve_Ramnagar_and_Uttrakhand_India/link/5c75938da6fdcc47159e632b/download

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - parvez - 04-25-2020

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/Tiger-kills-elephant-in-Corbett-Reserve/article15536997.ece

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - GuateGojira - 04-27-2020

(04-25-2020, 11:33 AM)parvez Wrote: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/o...536997.ece

Great account! Now we need to know how big is an "adolescent" female Asian elephant of about 20 years old?

Elephant experts here that can help us?

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - parvez - 04-27-2020

@GuateGojira I too will try to find out from some experts I know.

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - GuateGojira - 04-28-2020

(04-25-2020, 11:33 AM)parvez Wrote: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/o...536997.ece

@tigerluver provided this document about the body weight of the Indian elephant, in post 152: https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-elephants?page=11

In that document it says that the age of the elephants weighed and measured was between 15 to 50 years old. The smallest female weighed 1780 kg. So, assuming that the weight is related with the age, and that the smallest female was also the youngest, we can speculate that the female elephant of about 20 years old that the tiger killed in Corbet NP in 2011 probably weighed a little more, maybe about 2,000 kg. If this is the case, it seems that adolecent elephants are the biggest prey that a tiger can kill alone, but certainly only under very rare circunstances.

Thank you for telling me about this information @parvez. Like

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - parvez - 04-28-2020

@GuateGojira yes. But it must be noted that all of them are captive elephants. I assume wild elephants to be even more bulkier. So, the weight may be around 2.25 -2.5 tons is my guesstimate.

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - Asad981 - 05-09-2020

Here is a chronological list of the largest and most powerful prey a solitary lion can kill. (This will be a fairly long post) Lets'a go

Cape buffalo bulls

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Here a male lion takes down a buffalo bull

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A study U. de. V Pienaar, Predator-prey relationships amongst the larger mammals of the kruger national park

"Full grown bull giraffes and adult bull buffaloes are succesfully pulled down on occasion by a single male lion"

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https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/753/837

A lioness is capable of bringing down one too

"Yet that is exactly what the Tsalala lioness accomplished last week in an insane display of strength. Ranger Greg Pingo heard the buffalo’s distress calls, and found the lioness and her kill when she was already opening it up.

Certain factors almost certainly acted in the lioness’ favour. The buffalo looked like an old bull and was therefore slightly weaker than a male in his prime. The river sand in which she took him down probably helped anchor the bull, preventing him from moving fast and perhaps making good an escape. The thick bank of Matumi trees probably hemmed him in, acting like a wall against which he could be cornered.
I’m in no way attempting to belittle the lioness’ accomplishment here; quite the opposite in fact, as I’m singing her praises for recognising a superb opportunity and capitalising on it."

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https://blog.londolozi.com/2019/07/24/tsalala-lioness-brings-down-buffalo/

Full grown bull giraffes

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"Full grown bull giraffes and adult bull buffaloes are succesfully pulled down on occasion by a single male lion"

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https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/753/837

A juvenile is powerful enough to bring one down too

"We have seen lions bring down different prey species from A to Z – from aardvark, antelopes, elands ostrich, wildebeest to zebras. But two days ago it was a different story. A lone male lion jumped on the back of a mature male giraffe, devoured the tendons and was dragged on for over 500 meters before finally succeeding in bringing it down. This was an act that surprised us all and we were left speechless at how a lone lion could perform this amazing feat!"

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https://web.archive.org/web/20170823112815/http://lionguardians.org/lone-lion-kills-a-giraffe/

A male lion named Miles killed a bull giraffe

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"I decided to fit this collar to an adult male lion, named Miles (Xpl-16) that lives in the Ugab River. It was a daunting task because he moves over an enormous area of 16,000 sqr km, and the last time I darted him on 24 June 2007 he attacked my vehicle and shredded three tires (see News 2007). After searching the area for four days I finally tracked him down in the lower Ugab River, where he had killed a giraffe bull. I then spent another two days (and nights) habituating him before a successful darting at 01h00 on 23 April 2008. The collar was fitted and he recovered from the immobilisation without incident. Since then I have received two emails with accurate records of his movements"

https://web.archive.org/web/20081212195202/http://www.desertlion.info/news08a.html

Big full grown crocodiles (Nile & Mugger)

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A lion named "Scarface" killed nile crocodiles measuring over 12 feet

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https://firstlightsafaris.com/2015/11/03/the-thieving-lion/

A lion killed a large crocodile measuring 11 ft and 7 inches

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Even the Asiatic lion is capable of killing mugger crocodiles

Lions were seen hunting and devouring crocodiles in the Kamaleshwar banks

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https://books.google.it/books?id=J0rME6RjC1sC&pg=PA148&lpg=PA148&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false

"Tigers and lions (both African and Asiatic) are occasional hunters of adult crocodilians. (And sometimes good sized ones)"

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https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/predator-vs-prey/nile-crocodile-ends-up-on-a-leopards-menu-in-zambia/

Bull eland

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A male lion killed a large bull eland

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"A mammoth effort from one of our coalition male Lions, Shadow, who has managed to bring down a huge Eland bull. He has been on the kill for the last few days with hundreds of kilograms of meat at his paws. We estimate shadow to be around 220-230kg’s but that is tiny compared to the possible 700 – 800 Kg Eland bull We cannot imagine he can eat anymore without his stomach bursting, but tonight he gave it five minutes."

https://erindi.com/blog/shadow-the-silent-slayer/

Male lion kills eland in Mashatu game reserve

Indian buffalo

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The lion already proved he is capable of killing bull buffaloes single-handedly. Even the Asiatic lion is capable of doing the same feats

Record of a huge Indian buffalo killed by a solitary lion. The buffalo was dreadfully clawed, mauled and was done for

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https://archive.org/details/journalofbombayn20191011bomb/page/742/mode/2up

Good sized young elephants

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Male lion takes down young elephant with killer efficiency

Wildlife expert, Dereck Joubert saw a single male lion knock a 6 year old elephant

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Even a single male can overpower a young elephant. Between 1994 and 1997, Dereck Joubert found that the lions of Botswana’s Chobe National Park were getting better and better at hunting elephants. He wrote: “In one notable case, a single male lion ran at nearly full speed into the side of a 6-year-old male calf with sufficient force to collapse the elephant on its side.”

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https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/older-elephants-know-the-best-anti-lion-moves#.Vr6yHObm3IU

Stunning account of a single lion killing a young elephant. The author, Mark C Ross estimated the elephant to be 2 tons. Even if the elephant wasnt 2 tons, it is definately between 1600 to 1700 kg.

"This male killed this elephant entirely on its own, an impressive and extremely rare feat of daring. It will be difficult for him to break the tough hide, however."

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https://archive.org/details/predatorlifedeat0000ross/page/144/mode/2up

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - Pckts - 05-14-2020

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Not a Water buffalo, this is a domestic Buffalo.

RE: Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill - Dr Panthera - 05-29-2020

Asad posted a great collection of large lion prey.

To summarize:

African male lion: Juvenile elephants ( up to 2000 kg) , giraffe bulls ( 1000-1900 kg) .

Asiatic male lion : Domestic buffalo ( 300 to 600 kg ) , nilgai bulls and sambar stags.

Amur tiger : Manchurian moose ( 260-300 kg...note smaller than Alaskan/Canadian moose ) , domestic animals including oxen and horses.

Sumatran tiger : Domestic animals and sambar stags ( circa 150 kg in Sumatra , smaller than mainland sambars )

South Asian tiger ( Singapore to Sariska ) Gaur bulls ( 600-941 kg ) , banteng bulls ( 600 to 800 kg ), elephant calves.