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(02-25-2022, 07:25 PM)SpinoRex Wrote: Again you have to consider that these weights of 187.5 kg are based on a empty stomach as well as the "prime males of 197 kg", which is a big difference than just a normal weight.
What do you mean by this statement?
What do you mean "normal weight"?
Weights adjusted for stomach content must always be considered as the normal weights of an animal because that is the real weight or on an empty stomach precisely for the reason that the stomach weight is based 100% on the body mass of that animal without that external corpses such as food interfere or influence the whole.
Yeah but sadly "empty stomach" isnt normal in weight datas. The 42 adult males from C.India werent adjusted and weighed 190.5 kg. Just like the 44 males shot by C.Behaar and the males killed in terai. Thats the reason why you have to seperate it. The only datas that adjusted their specimens in large samples were Bertram and Smuts
About the crater males i said about. Though i dont know if any cat population can reach 220 kg if unsucessfull males are included (Even those in Pillibhit and Corbett are of 170-180 even though the corbett male was a large one). Maybe in some areas but not on an empty stomach thats for sure.
Empty stomach is normal since more than half the culled Lions had an empty stomach as said by Smuts.
Not to mention, the only stomach content actually measured was from the culled Lions not the others and stomach content outside the culled Lions was based off of an estimated bait body weight minus amount eaten. Not an exact science there, like Hoogestijin said, there's absolutely no way to know the amount of food inside a cat unless you cut it open.
So any additional weight added to the captured cats is baseless. The average is the average, simple as that.
No one makes an excuse when quoting Brander that he had a 160kg Male Tiger mentioned in his average as well as not having a scale on hand to weigh the (600lb *est* Tiger)
So reduction or addition of either of those cats could probably make a difference in the average of the 42 cats.
When sample sizes are low the averages are too skewed.
It's pretty safe to say that no matter the population, Lions and Tigers are generally around 200kg with large males around 230kg and exceptional ones 270kg+
If you want to argue how often they reach the "large and exceptional" sizes you can but I'd wager it's the Tiger doing so more often since you're comparing Lions who have roughly 20-30 thousand individuals in the wild vs Tigers who have roughly 3-5 Thousand.