Amur Tigers

[peter]

Good information, Guate. Two remarks about the table on the weight of the Amur brown bear. One is the range for 10 adult males was 260-321 kg. An average of 264 kg. is a bit suspect. I assume a mistake was made somewhere.

Two is poster Alexious3 wrote the average weight of adult females is lower than the average weight mentioned in the table (12 females averaged 189 kg.). He said most adult females range between 130-150 kg. I didn't know what to make of his remark, but he apparently had good contacts in Russia.

One thing to remember regarding bears is general is the variation in size in adults is significant. A Chinese poster on AVA posted reliable informaton on a very heavy female (I thought she was 360 kg.). This animal was killed and weighed in northern China. I also remember a female of about 100 kg. with two cubs (in Kaplanov's monograph). Both adults, but very different. 

According to Bart Schleier, who tracked tigers hunting bears in the snow, most bears hunted were killed by older male tigers. He wrote they had about 100 pounds on most of the bears taken. As adult male tigers average 430 pounds (Miquelle), most bears killed probably ranged between 300-350 pounds. It's very likely most, if not all, were adult females. The heaviest female killed was estimated at 150-200 kg. (330-440 pounds) by those who saw her. She put up a good fight (the tiger was wounded), but didn't survive the encounter. All bears hunted were killed.

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