ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - B - THE LION (Panthera leo)

[peter]

(06-26-2018, 09:36 PM)johnny rex Wrote:

Quote:Sexual dimorphism in lions seems to be less outspoken than in tigers. The table above shows quite a bit of overlap between males and females. Lioness 'Muna' had the longest head(54 cm.) by a margin. In skull circumference (88 cm.), she also topped the average for males (83 cm.). Lioness 'Spots', at 317 cm. in total length, is the the longest female cat I know of. The average chest girth of the 5 lionesses would have been over 125 cm. if the immature lioness (no. 8) would have been removed from the table. This means that they would have averaged well over 150 kg. (351 pounds).

There is an error, @peter. Actually it is the male lion named Tara or also known as HPL-5 that have the 54 cm long head. Its mane is sparse if you see the pictures in the original source http://africat.org/hobatere-lion-researc...-june-2015 , do you think it is a young adult?

But the method of measurement is over the curve, so that's why they got a 54 cm long head for Tara aka HPL-5. If it is measured in a straight line, it would be lesser than 54 cm. But they said in the original source, only the leg length measurement is measured over the curve (along body contour) and they didn't mentioned whether head length or head circumference (Volkel aka HPL-2 have a 98 cm head circumference) are measured over the curve. It would be better if someone have their contacts in order to know what method of measurement that they used.

Thanks Johnny. I will correct the error and post the table when I have time.

As to the question on the way the lions were measured. As far as I know, all lions were measured 'over curves'. This method has been adopted by nearly all field biologists, so it seems. The problem is that this method can be applied in different ways.

Anyhow. Lions in that part of Africa are large animals. One of the males was 11 feet in total length measured 'over curves'. Desert females in particular seem to be longer than anywhere else.

Most of the information used for the table was posted by the Lioness. If you have questions, you could contact her. At the moment, she most probably has no time (her mother was diagnosed with cancer).

My advice is to go over the info yourself. Post the results in the thread 'On the Edge of Extinction - part B - The Lion (Panthera leo)'. I'll ask our mods to move your post and my reply to that thread as well. Reply