Freak Felids - A Discussion of History's Largest Felines

[AndresVida]

(05-09-2021, 09:13 PM)Balam Wrote: Cougars and leopards aren't taller than jaguars, the height of jaguars quoted comes from a straight line and without counting the paw, whereas for leopards and cougars it usually counts the paw, cougars seem to have particularly long limbs so I wouldn't be surprised if the tallest males reach the 80 cm mark, but I'm highly skeptical of leopards reaching this threshold.

Wasn't the tallest cougar around 90 cm? That's basically as tall as a cheetah but the cougar is more proportioned about weight relative to its size. The tallest jaguar as you told me was 81 cm at the shoulder whereas on modern weights and measurements for wild leopards I have seen many leopards reaching the 80 cm mark with 2 of them topping at 86 cm. Maybe straight line?

(05-09-2021, 09:13 PM)Balam Wrote: The maximum recorded reliable weights for cougars and leopards are 103 kg and 96 kg respectively

Wasn't the largest cougar 105 and not 103 kg? By the way every weight ranges for animals are based on modern captures, I always like to consider the animal since it evolved till today. I mean leopards exist since pléistocène, several thousand of years ago. We caught the 96 kg Namibian one when their numbers were already decreasing because of hunting and less prey were disponible.
In a thousand years of history, with all the leopards that have walked on this planet, none of them gained those 4 kgs to reach 100 kg? To me it's 100%sure that's why I put 100 kgs as the generic limit of the leopards. We don't know about cougars but in my opinion 113 kg might me their limit. They are still larger than Leopards

However this is my take, on scientific records the largest leopards and cougars are 96 and 105 kg, but in a thousand years of existence larger males have existed FOR SURE. Reply