Comparing Cats: A Discussion of Similarities & Differences

[Spalea]

@Pckts :

About #19: Your two photos in profil show the same posture of a male tiger and male lion. Both seem identical.

Inside the Wildfact forum I have never so much compared photos of our two famous big cats. In profil but frontal shots too, as we see them walking towards us. Because I must admit: the cross section of the tiger's front legs, front paws, seems  and is wider.

Being very difficult and hazardous two find two identical photos as you make perfectly well, @Pckts , I prefer, by lazziness, to post two shematical sketchs:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Sorry too, they are not exactly to the same scale.

But by comparing them at this posture, I really think the tiger's paws are wider, and the lion's paws "dryer". Having both a body with 0% fat, if we made an analogy among the olympic athletes, the tiger would be a 100 meters runner (Yohan Blake, Tyson Gay) the lion a long distance runner (Saouid Aouita). Mind you ! I made an analogy in terms
of morphology, I don't say the lion is a long runner compared to tiger. 

I encourage you to compare two photos showing the both cats in this posture. It's enough striking (more than in my sketchs). Reply