Modern weights and measurements on wild tigers

[GuateGojira]

(06-01-2022, 02:39 AM)Tommy Wrote: Hi guate nice to see you here! 

I had some questions  

1. Can you share the source of 259 kg Indochina tiger by bazé

2. M105 and M026 both tigers had stomach content or not ???

3. Can you make table about heaviest tiger from hunting records

4. What is your opinion is this possible of Amur tiger 300 kg in wild

5. What is average weight for both lions and tigers in overall


Thanks for your time
-- Tommy Oliver --

Hi, I did not noticed your message as I was not tagged correctly, sorry for the delay.

Here are my answers:

1. Source of the tiger of Bazé, from the original book:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Based in the process of Slaght et al. (2005) this is a "highly reliable" figure.

2. We don't know if the males M105 and M126, from Chitwan NP, had any stomach content or not. The calculations of a weight of c.260 kg "empty" assume that they were baited, but honestly we don't know. However, the male M105 was captured so many times that is possible that it could be captured using only its collar signal as Smith et al. (1983) informed that was done with some tigers in the study, so he could weight much more "empty".


3. I can, certainly. It will take time, but for the moment, and assuming that you want only Bengal tigers, here is the list that I made previously with the "exceptional" specimens from the Indian subcontinent on record:

*This image is copyright of its original author

4. About the existance of Amur tiger of up to 300 kg in the wild, in this days, mmmmmmm, I think that is not likely. I mean, even in the great habitats of the Indian subcontinent we are not recording males that surpass the 272 kg mark, so in the low prey base Russian Far East definitelly they are weighing less. However, there are some unconfirmed reports of males up to 270 kg in north China in recent years, and based in the old "confirmed" records of the area, I think that with a good prey base some big males could reach the same weights of the biggest Bengal tigers again, which is about 600 lb, but over that it will be rare and exceptional.

5. About the average weight of lions and tigers "overall", in other words at "species" level, @peter and I made some calculations years ago and we got about the same numbers that are published by Kitchener & Yamaguchi (2010):
* Tiger: 160 kg (males) & 115 kg (females)
* Lion: 175 kg (males) & 120 kg (females)


However, take in count that these are just "simple averages" and not "weighted averages", the figures could be not quite representative. Using the second method the figures are going to be different, but I still don't make the calculations. 


Hope this helps.

Greetings. Reply