behind the big cat's and bear's, who is the top predator?

[Dr Panthera]

(10-26-2015, 10:06 AM)GuateGojira Wrote:

(10-25-2015, 11:20 PM)Dr Panthera Wrote: Sorry about the low quality  I had it photographed by my son from the book and sent to me,but clearly this juvenile elephant is still a large prey, according to Shrader et al. An adult elephant will have a shoulder height of over 220 cms, sub-adults from the eruption of tusks to adulthood ( ages 4 to 20) will have a shoulder height of 150 to 220 cms and weigh between 800 and 3200 kg 

*This image is copyright of its original author

Great picture, thank for it.

To be sincere, this young elephant doesn't look of more than 700 - 900 kg, let out a figure of 2,000 kg. Ross probably made a gross estimation here.

Sorry for disturb you, but I will like to make just one final question, there is evidence if this lion was alone? I mean, other lions could be out of the picture, and the young elephant could be killed by the lion groups and latter claimed for the male, like they normally do. Could you post the description of this particular hunt in the book?

For advance, thanks for your data, it is really good to see someone that actually contribute with all here.

Hi Guate this elephant judging by its tusks and length is around six years of age , African elephants being the largest terrestrial mammals show immense size even during their young age, a new born bush African elephant is 100 to 120 kg, by the time it is weaned it is 600 kg ( two and a half years) and when tusks erupt it is already over a ton ( 4 years of age), most lion predation on elephants target the age group 4 to 9 years of age where the elephant is between 1000 and 2000 kg at this age the young elephants are less dependent on their mothers and are more easily separated and killed than younger calves who are under close maternal protection, this behavior is documented by Joubert ( Savute - Botswana), Loveridge ( Hwange-Zimbabwe) and Vanherle (Zakouma- Chad).
I agree that this elephant is not likely to weigh 2000 kg, but given it is definitely over 150 cms (compared to the lion) and it tusks have erupted I think it would be in the range of 1200 kg, either way Ross states it was killed by the male alone ( I posted a picture of some of his description), remarkable feat of strength none the less. 
Ross words : **This male killed this elephant entirely on his own, an impressive and extremely rare feat of daring** he must have witnessed the kill.

As we both listed there many amazing accounts of pretty much every large felid taking down prey several times its size but the stoat killing a rabbit is almost 30 folds and the most astonishing..this is like a 130 kg lioness killing a 4 ton elephant!!!!  

I have been studying the feeding ecology of large felids since the 1980s and yet I can not say for sure if a tiger feeding on a chital will get more or less food than a pride of lions feasting on a wildebeest or a leopard on impala, there are too many variables that come into play, the constant thing is that there is an amazing formula regulating the frequency of hunt, availability of scavenged carrion, retention time, competition, size of prey, degree of hunger, season, edible part of prey, and the presence of cubs and pride members.
A kill that will provide a tiger or a lion with 8 kg/day for males and 5 kg/day for females will keep them healthy, if there is less food intake or mouths to feed then more frequent hunts will be attempted, if suitable prey is not present..larger prey will be attempted and so on. 
Simply amazing! Reply