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

[GuateGojira]

(02-18-2020, 12:37 AM)Pantherinae Wrote: Do we know how often he had killed cattle? Still the lion as far as I know was healthy and territorial and also some males rarely participate in hunting(only eats) yet never seems to be abnormally bulky. Almost every gir lion is a cattle killer, yet most males never seems abnormally bulky. I think maybe male lions are different to tigers as male tigers finding plenty of easy prey changes his lifestyle more drastically than a male lion, as he usually needs to be super fit to chase down fast prey like deer, whereas some male lions can probably go a year without hunting especially males with injuried hind legs. Some Lions just has to be fit enough to patrol and protect his territory. 

Lion huting was banned in Kenya 1977 and I think it has taken a couple of decades before big lions became a regular sight again, as large individuals must have been targeted in the past and the few good genes that survived has now gotten time to spread out again. Largest lioness as far as I know is also from East Africa, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the largest males where from that region as well.

The lion ate only cattle, that is why the lion was killed. It was not "hunted" for sport, it was killed by the park ranges as it was a "problematic" animal. The lion was healty but it had no pride and was not territorial, at least this is the few information that we have from the animal. The Asian lions are not cattle killers per se but they main prey is wild animals, not just cattle. 

The largest lionesess that I know came from Southern Africa, based on averages, and although the heaviest female came from Kenya with 186 kg, this record came from hunting sources so is unclear if the animal had stomach content or it she was pregnant, like some cases reported by Stevenson-Hamilton.

At the end, to avoid hurting sensitivities from some "hard-core" lion fans, I change the word "abnormal" to just "very", but this not change the fact that this lion was not the prime-healty-pride boss lion that some people may think. Like I explined before, this was not a "normal" lion at al. For details check the link, post number 185: https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-on-the-...eo?page=13

Also, if someone ask why I did not include the huge lion skull of 432 mm in the table, please check this link, post number 159: https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-on-the-...eo?page=11

Hope this helps. Reply