ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - B - THE LION (Panthera leo)

[GuateGojira]

The body size of the lion (Panthera leo) - Final work:

I finally manage to compile all the information about the body size and weight for all the lion populations from which we have actual data. I manage to put it in one big image so here is the compilation of data about the body size and weight from Panthera leo:

*This image is copyright of its original author

This time I manage to put important remarks between the notes and the size of the Barbary lion reflects an "average" specimen, which now shows that it will be about the same size than the other populations of its subspecies. By the way, I know that a Barbary lion in the wild will probably not look like this, but as all the data available came from captive animals, I deciced to use a captive specimen. Other remark on the body measurements, especifically the total length/head-body/shoulder height from Indian lions reported by Jhala et al., (2019) were not included as were taken "along the curves" and I allready had measurements "between pegs" which are more reliable, but chest girths and weights did were included.

Also, for space issues, I just used the most extreme populations from the Southern lions and I did not included the populations of Zimbabwe and Botswana, so here you have the original table again, and can be used like a completement/Appendix to the previous image presented here:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Finally, we must not forget the particular population of lions in Ethiopia, which we only know captive specimens in the Addis Ababa Zoo, and we can't discard its measurements as we can use them like surrogates from the wild population if necesary, like we do with the Malayan and South China tigers, so I add this image too:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Finally about skulls, I have more information about many populations, which include that from J. H. Mazák (2010), Roosevelt & Heller (1914), Hartstone-Rose et al. (2014) and Stevenson Hamilton (1947), however with the last one I was searching in the book (yes, now I have the book! ) and he did not describe the method of measurements and I affraid that probably he measured his lion skulls "between perpendiculars" which was the method used by most hunters in his days and which, compared with measurements with callipers, may slightly increase the length, specially if the mandible is still attached to the skull. That is why I used only skulls measures by Zoologists using callipers.

I think that, for the moment, these three tables/images summarize my data about the body size of the lion at this moment (January 2020), if someone have a doubt or request specific data from a population, feel free to ask.

Greetings and cheers to all. Reply