Modern weights and measurements on wild tigers

[GuateGojira]

(09-24-2020, 08:13 PM)Yusuf Wrote: Personally i dont agree that a adult male tiger has a minimum weight of 200 kg... . Many tigers weighed 180 kg and they were adult. Even from Terrai or Nepal one Tiger was 400 lbs and was claimed as NORMAL SIZE FOR A MALE. (Probably he mean the dimensions).

According to Mazák, the average weight of Indian male tigers should fluctuate around 190 kg. (The most reliable max weights are a 258 kg male bengal tiger reported by mazak)
Mazák, 1983 (S. 178 ff.)


Best Regards.

About the weight of male Bengal tigers:

I have the book of Mazák, the reprint of 2013 of the edition of 1983, and also we have the document of 1981 for the American Society of Mammalogists. In page 144 Mazák says that the weight of the male Bengal tiger range between 200 to 220 kg and reach a maximum of 258 kg based in Hewett. In page 188 and 189 he mention that Brander says that the average weight was of 190 kg, so Mazák do not presented that average, he just quote it with its source. In the document of 1981 he presents a range between 180 to 258 kg for adult Bengals. This is the information from Mazák, based in captive specimens and hunting records.

Since 1973 tiger were captured by scientists in Nepal and the range for the adult males is from 200 to 272 kg+, while the subadults males weight between 125 to 216 kg. Only 3 adult males were captured between 1970 to 1980 and the smallest one was of 200 kg (M-102). The male of 180 kg reported by Mishra is not an adult tiger as it was captured in 1980 and was included in the table of the document of Smith et al. (1983) and as you already know, no adult male captured in Nepal weighed less than 200 kg. Certainly when he says "normal size" was regarding the body size and not the weight. It is known that subadult males already reach the length and in some exceptional cases even the weight of the smallest adults, the male M-123 is a good example as it even had a territory until it was killed by the giant male M-126. The male M-104 was a subadult  of 159 kg but that already had a length of 289 cm.

Dr Karanth (2003 and 2013) stablished a weight between 175 to 260 kg, but that range is for tigers in the Southeast of Asia (he included all Indochina) and not only India/Nepal region. Dr Sunquist (2010) stablish a range between 200 - 260 kg for adult males from India and Nepal. Finally Dr Jhala presented an excelent study about how to age a tiger and he establish that males of over 3 years, which are young adults to 5 years weight between 200 to 260 kg. That do not means that smaller males do not happen, but it seems that the norm is that range.

Now, we need to take in count that some males were baited, like the 200 kg male M-102, so if we adjust it for stomach content, this male could had weighed as low as 181 kg. However from 16 adult males captured by scientists, only 4 males weighed less than 200 kg, two were young adults (183 kg and 185 kg), other was an old one (197 kg) and a last one was a young male that was injured (197 kg).

So, while the overall average of the Bengal tiger in mainland, using both scientific and huting records, provide a figure of 210 kg (n=160; range: 150 - 272 kg), IF we use only scientific records the average weight will be of 220 kg (n=16; range: 183 - 261 kg). Take in count that the figure from scientific records is fully adjusted for stomach content and include only specimens of over 3 years old (not fully adult but already sexually mature), which suggest that all the males between 150 - 180 included in the hunting records were not adults at all and that the figure of 210 kg is an underestimation.

Check these images for more details and take in count that many posters had provided more weights in this topic of male tigers that I did not included yet as I want to corroborate them, and if we include them probably the average of 220 kg will increase:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Reply