Lions in Central and East Africa

[peter]

Excellent posts and a real nice comparison of a 6-feet man and an average east African male lion, Guate. This puts things into some perspective.

I agree the alleged 313 kg. Hectorspruit lion, reliabilitywise, compares to the 389 kg. tiger shot in 1967. V. Mazak (983) measured over 280 lion skulls (...) and went over all records. He thought the 583-pound lion shot in 1865 in South Africa (in Lydekker, 1893-1894, pp. 359, and Tjader, 1910, pp. 32) was the heaviest. Today's records underline the heaviest lions range between 550-600 pounds. Captive males can get over that mark.

Timbavati lions are large. I saw a normal coloured male and a descendant of the famous wild white Timbavati male in a Dutch zoo and talked to the biologist who worked for the zoo. They were huge and robust animals in excellent shape. At one stage, he called the white male and led him into a small room. I was about 3 feet away and saw him for quite some time. Between 560-580 pounds, I thought. As big as they come and definitely bigger than the male Amur tiger in the same zoo (a direct descendant of a wild male). The white male tiger I also saw in the zoo, at 249 kg. (he was weighed), was a trifle smaller than the white Timbavati male.

When both (lion and tiger) are about similar in weight, lions, as a result of the large skull and the mane, appear a bit larger and taller, whereas tigers seem to be a bit longer and more muscular (not more robust). Reply