ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[peter]

BETTY

Good find. Your post might have an unexpected effect.

Before continuing, I want to offer my sympathy to the relatives of the 43-year old keeper of the Cologne zoo. Although she had plenty of experience, she apparently made a mistake and paid the ultimate price.

1 - THE TIGER

Male Amur tiger 'Altai' was 4 years of age when he was shot by zoo director Theo Pagel after he had killed the zoo keeper. The tiger had been moved to Cologne in April 2011 to meet 'Hanya', a tigress from a French facility. The meeting had an effect, as 'Hanya' gave birth to 3 cubs.

2 - AUTOPSY REPORT

An interdisciplinary team, consisting of a veterinarian pathologist, a forensic pathologist and autopsy technicians, performed an autopsy on tiger 'Altai'. The tiger measured 240 cm. from nose to tail root. The tail measured 96,5 cm. The length of the canines ranged between 35 and 70 mm.

The total length of the tiger was 336,5 cm. (11 feet and about half an inch), that is. Very long, even for a male Amur tiger. The question is in what way he was measured.

Dr. P. van Bree of the former Zoological Museum of Amsterdam told me he measured big cats in a straight line ('between pegs'). Dr. D. Morike of the Staatliches Museum fur Naturkunde Stuttgart also told me that big cats should be measured in that way. As tiger 'Altai' was measured by, or in the presence of, a veterinarian pathologist and a forensic pathologist, I assume that the tiger was measured in the correct way: in a straight line.

This means that the tiger was almost as long as the record tiger shot in northern India in the late sixties of the previous century. That male, at 11.1 in total length measured in a straight line and 11.7 'over curves', is the longest I know of.

3 - SKULL

Good photographs of big cat skulls are few and far between. Betty's post has three, of which two will be used in this post. Both photographs have scales. Here they are again (sorry about the notes):

*This image is copyright of its original author

It is about the scale used in the two photographs. It's the same scale, I think. The length of the longest wing is 10 cm. The short wing is 5 cm. I'll start with the first photograph.

3a - Photograph 1

This photograph shows the canines and the rostrum. The scales enables a few measurements. I measured the width of the rostrum and the length of the left upper canine (from the tip to the insertion). 

How did I get to a measurement in both cases? I first printed the photograph and measured the length of the long side of the scale. We know that the long wing has a length of 10 cm. In the print, the long wing isn't 10, but 5,20 cm. (520 to make things easy). The width of the rostrum (referring to the print) is 6,50 cm. (650). In order to find the real width of the rostrum, we have to divide 650 by 520, knowing that 520 is 10,00 cm. The result is 1,25. This means that the rostrum is about 125,00 mm. Never saw a rostrum that wide. The length of the left upper canine (measured in a straight line from the tip to the insertion) is 79,80 mm. Also the longest I saw.

3b - Photograph 2

Another excellent photograph showing the skull with a scale. It's the same scale used in the first photograph. The scale, however, poses a problem. We know the long wing is exactly 10 cm., but what about the width of the short part that is added? To keep it short: the scale has a total length of 12,50 cm.

As for the printed photograph. On the print, the length of the scale is 275 units (275 in the photograph). The total length of the skull is 950 units. When we divide 950 by 275, the result is 3,4545. In order to get to the real length of the skull, we have to multiply 3,4545 with 12,50. The result is 431,818 mm. for greatest total skull length. Unheard of.

The width at the arches (referring to the print I made) is 625 units (625). If we divide 625 by 275 (the length of the scale), the result is 2,2727. In order to get to the real length, we have to multiply 2,2727 with 12,50. The result is 284,09 mm. Very wide, but not a record. The reason is that the tiger was a young adult.  

I also had another go at the width of the rostrum. This time, the result was 122,72 mm.

3c - To conclude

The scale in the two photographs is of crucial importance. If it would have been 10 cm., the skull would have been slightly below average for males of Panthera tigris altaica. If the scale, however, really is 12,50 cm., the results are staggering. It's the largest tiger skull by quite a margin.

4 -  ALL

As some of you know, I measured many big cat skulls. The longest tiger skull was a bit below 380,00 mm. in greatest total length. There is (referring to Christiansen) some evidence of skulls exceeding 16 inches in greatest total length, but 'some evidence' is very different from a confirmed measurement.

The tiger featuring in this post was 240 cm. in head and body length and had a tail of 96,5 cm., which results in a total length of 336,5 cm. (...). Remarkable, if we consider that the tiger still was a young adult when he was shot. If I'm right, the skull of this male was 431,18 mm. in greatest total length. With a width of 284,09 mm. and a rostrum width of 122,72 mm., the skull is way larger than all other skulls.

Betty. If you give me the coordinates (full text, source, email etc), I will contact one of the writers and, if possible, go to Cologne myself in order to measure the skull. By train, it only is a few hours.

I assume I made a mistake somewhere. If you see errors, let me know. If I avoided them, this most probably is the largest tiger skull ever. By a margin.

As to the possibility of a tiger skull exceeding 16 inches in greatest total length. There are quite a few tigers exceeding 600 pounds in captivity. Some of them have very large skulls. The great majority will never be measured. In Nepal and some parts of India, wild male tigers also exceed 600 pounds at times. Tables with measurements of tiger skulls very often are reproductions of old information. I do not doubt that large skulls can exceed 16 inches in greatest total length. 

Here's the second photograph again: if I'm right (depends on the scale at the bottom left), this skull has a greatest total length of about 430,00 mm., a zygomatic width of 284 mm. and a rostrum width exceeding 122 mm.: 

*This image is copyright of its original author

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