BODY SIZE AND MASS OF NGORONGORO CRATER LIONS

[Pckts]

(02-12-2015, 08:32 PM)'WaveRiders' Wrote: Pckts
 
As we know Ngorongoro Crater lions appear to have similar morphological characters of Serengeti lions while it has been suggested they both slightly differ from Manyara lions (proportionally longer facial bones and less developed mane in males in the latter population).
 
What clearly makes the difference is the high prey density all-year around in the Ngorongoro Crater and the high level of kleptoparasitism of lions at the cost of spotted hyenas.
 
At the end I believe Ngorongoro Crater are just very much well fed Serengeti-like lions that are on average significantly bigger and also likely slightly larger then Serengeti lions despite the inbreeding depression. Studies of effects of inbreeding in mammals from humans to carnivores (brown bears and others) mostly suggest a negative impact on body size. Food supply overcome this handicap in Ngorongoro Crater lions.

Therefore in principle any or nearly any or at least most lion populations anywhere with a regular and abundant prey supply like in Ngorongoro Crater can produce lions on average as big, and likely as large, as those from Ngorongoro Crater if not bigger and larger (because of no inbreeding depression).
 
Effects of increasing average body mass is perhaps what is happening in the well protected areas of most Indian/Nepal Parks where tigers might actually be somewhat bigger on average then those of the first half of the XX century because of higher prey density, regular food supply and no hunting pressure (poaching has a different kind of impact). Unfortunately it should be necessary to get samples of large size, homogeneous and randomly taken to have a more definitive answer, something that it is not possible in the very much fragmented current tiger range of the Indian sub-continent. Taking a few tigers here, a few there and so on mostly from the core areas of each NP is not the same thing then taking a similar number of individuals from an hypothetical contiguous very large area of the size at least comparable to the Serengeti Ecosystem or the Selous Game Reserve or the Okavango Delta or the Kalahari or Kruger NP and so on.
 
 
At the end I would say:
 
Give a wild lion cub plenty of food throughout all his life and it will become a very muscular Ngorongoro Crater lion-like wild lion.
 
Give a wild Bengal/Amur tiger cub plenty of food throughout all his life and it will become the typical very stocky and massive wild tiger we are used to regularly see in the core areas of Indian/Nepal Parks.
 
 
                         WaveRiders
 

 

 

You are making assumptions to say they are more or less well fed than any other Serengeti Lion. You can also make the same assumption that since they have such a high amount of Coalition Size that they have to share food between to many mouth's so you can in the same breath say, they actually eat less than a coalition of 2-4 males with a large female pride. The Serengeti is a massive piece of land the same prey that goes through the Crater must trek through the Serengeti, most herbivores there are migratory so they must trek through there. They have every bit of opportunity to prey on tons of creatures, far more than any in the crater.
The real determination on mass of a Lion or Tiger is Body length. That is the best correlation, especially in Tigers. There are exceptions obviously but that is the best. Now in regards to Crater size, there is nothing that I have seen or read that say they are any larger, if you have any weights or measurements, I would love to see them. They are genetically the same as any other Serengeti Lions so they will be the same measurements most likely. They are genetically inbred and that could affect size. I have seen no body weight of Crater lions to determine them to be larger, I have read no eye witnesses of Crater lions to compare them to others and say they are larger than other lions.
In Kaziranga, not only do you notice images but you have eye witnesses all saying Kaziranga has larger tigers. Even Packer says this, If you can find the same proof for Crater Lions that would help the case.
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