BODY SIZE AND MASS OF NGORONGORO CRATER LIONS

[Dr Panthera]

(10-22-2015, 03:25 AM)strana Wrote:

(10-22-2015, 12:25 AM)Dr Panthera Wrote: I spent a few weeks in Kenya and Tanzania researching lion feeding ecology with respect to migratory wildebeest and I did spend some time in the Crater and was amazed by its lions.
First we have to differentiate by the 8990 square kilometres ngorongoro conservation area where Maasai tribes live , prey is sparse, and the lions are of average size( 160-200 kg) and the 260 square kilometres Ngorongoro Crater where 2400 meters walls enclose it and it harbours a very high density of herbivores making it lion paradise
Of the 62 lions that live in the crater I saw six lioness that rivalled the Serengeti males in size and two massive males , in scientific literature we only have the male measured by Ingelsson of 235kg, I was told of the weight of two males that died there by my guide ..both in the 240's kg , I will ask the Tanzania wildlife institute to provide us with more info if available
But to the naked eye these are likely to be the biggest lions in the world and along with some of Bengal tigers in their northern range ( Nepal, Terai, Assam) the largest cats though we need large scientific data before confirming such observation

Thanks for the information.
Do you believe that lions in Crater are bigger than in Okavango Delta ?? I ask it because some people are sure that no lions are comparable to those living in Okavango and some say Crater lions are the biggest animals.
By the way I can not agree with the afirmation that  Crater lions can compete with Bengal tigers : 240 kg is a very normal weight for a dominant tiger in South/Central  India, while it looks like only a few of Crater or Okavango lions can reach 230+kg Those tigers in northern range are in another league.

As I stated I want to see a sample of sizes showing a lot of readings and measurements before we can make a conclusion , we only have large samples of big cat sizes ( more than fifty specimens) from four areas only:
Russia average 180-190. Kg excluding problem animals
Kruger average 189 kg
Serengeti Plains 170's kg
Serengeti woodlands 180's
Of course we get reading and averages of small samples from different parts of India and Nepal of tigers exceeding 225kg and lions in Africa doing so as well but less frequently but these are small samples with no statistical reliability..what concerns me is not the biggest most dominant prime aged male..he does not represent more than 5% of the tiger or lion population I look at a larger sample to show near adults, prime adults, residents, nomads, past prime adults, and old adults and to do that in both males and females and the sufficient scientific data is only from the areas I listed above.
Some Okavango males like the males in the Tsaro pride in the Duba plains described by Joubert are quite large not weighed scientifically but likely to be close to 250 kg, another coalition described by Joubert has a big dark maned lion Mendevu which is definitely over 220 kg and the famous hyena killer , bull elephant attacker, he who greets with fire Ntchwaidumela who was an averaged sized lion of possibly 180 kg so we see again size is not the only thing individual character is also important. Reply