Largest Living wild lions ?

[GuateGojira]

(08-29-2014, 04:26 PM)'chaos' Wrote: I'm of the belief crater and/or okovangos could surpass the zimbabwe's
as the largest subspecies. Just not enough solid info as of yet to support that.

 

Crater and Okavango lions are indeed large, but the problem is that there are no records of that area yet. The same analogy came for tigers (sorry to mention it here, but is my best example), as the largest tigers, according with witnesses are those from Kaziranga, but as there are no weights from there, Nepalese tigers still have the official record.
 
In this case, I could say, and I agree with you, that Crater and Okavango lions could be a little heavier on average than other populations, according with witnesses, but in plain numbers, Zimbabwe lions are still the heavier ones. On body measurements, I don’t see a large difference, in fact, although the Southern African lions are indeed longer, the difference on averages is minimal in comparison with those of East African and West Africa: 276 cm against 274 cm and 270 cm respectively, which is practically nothing.
 
In top records, both East and Southern African lions reach the same maximum lengths which are of c.310 cm between pegs, but those from West Africa and India also reach about the same lengths, which are of 294-297 cm respectively. I have found that the records of lions of 333 cm in total length in East Africa, often quoted in Guinness and by Tom Brakefield, are a wrong figure and a misconception of the original records, as in fact these are NOT measured between pegs, but the original text state that the length came from “skins pegged out”. Somehow, Guggisberg misunderstood this and he stated in his book that those were taken in straight line, when in fact it wasn’t the case.
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