ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - B - THE LION (Panthera leo)

[GuateGojira]

Body size of the African lion - comparative images:

Since some time, I have made many images of large mammals, mostly the great herbivores of India, principal with the aim of give the proper "honor" to the prey animals, that sometimes are just forgotten and shadowed by the impressive carnivores of our world.

However, this doesn't mean that I have forgotten the carnivores, which I have made many images at this moment. One of the most impressive images (from my point of view) was that of the jaguars, showing the incredible variation between the Central American specimens with those of Brazil. However, one of my goals has been to create the images of the different subspecies of lions and tigers, but this is where the problem begins because, for my surprise, there is enough reliable material for lions but there is very poor one for tigers, specially those from the islands (which is very disappointing). Most of the documents quote Mazák for tigers, ignoring the fact that he don't present where he get the data (and included captive animals), meanwhile most sources quote the lion size in Nowak's "Walker Mammals of the World", which in the case of the great cats, is one of the most UNRELIABLE sources (and I say this with all the authority after searching hundreds of records from animals actually measured). It is obvious that searching data for tigers will take time, but for lions, I can say that 90% of the work has been done.

Here I present the comparative images of 3 of the 4 mayor lion evolutionary groups, which cover the two lion subspecies actually accepted:

1. Asian and North-West African lions: Panthera leo leo (the use of "persica" is just for conservation (and political) purposes).
2. The Sub-Saharan African lions: Panthera leo melanochaita - divided in the East and Southern clades.

I still need to finish the comparative image of the West African lions and those from the north (Barbary), but for the moment, here you have the images of the Indian lion, the East African lion and the Southern African lion, this last one separated in the two mayor groups: the east population and the west population.

1. Indian lion:

*This image is copyright of its original author

This is a new image, actualized from the first one with the Bengal tiger. In this new image I present the silhouette with the large possible size (according with the records) and I changed one big issue: We know the minimum and maximum weights from the four males recorded by scientists, but we don't know the average weight and it is not published, apparently, in other documents. The figure of "175 kg" was mere speculative, but if I want accuracy I think that the best is to eliminate it as we don't know the other two males. In an official page they state and average figure of "160 kg", but I found this doubtful as this is the lowest weight known, although there is the possibility that there would be more weights in modern records that we still don't know. Also, according with Pocock (1931), the heights over 100 cm reported for this population could be exaggerations, so we most take them as suggestive ones (the standing height of the large male of 299 cm "between pegs" was certainly no less than 100 cm).

2. East African lion:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Here I made just some minor changes in the title, add the webpage, and I add the silhouette of the largest specimen. Nothing new to add.

3. Southern African lion:

*This image is copyright of its original author

This one is completely new and summarize the records from the entire area. In this case, I separate the western specimens (which live in more desertic habitats) from those of the East. The records came from Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is impressive to see that although there is little variation between these lions and those from the East, they are comparatively heavier, which corroborate the common fact stated in literature.

Interestingly, this two populations present the two dichotomies of the records:

a. The Southern lions from the east includes the records of hunters too, but interestingly, some of the scientific sources also used dead animals. In this case, the line between the "hunting record" and the "scientific record" is very thin and difficult to establish.

b. The Southern lions of the west, in the other hand, have only lions from scientific records, and although some of the old records could include some dead animals, the documents suggest that it was not the case as all these specimens were captured for radiocollaring, none for culling and none has hunted. All the specimens from this area were measured "along the curves" but this doesn't mean that they were measured like the old hunters (a resent confirmation from a highly reliable source explain the entire issue). In fact, these lions were measured in a straight line but without the use of "pegs", just from tip to tip, without pressing the tape in each curve like the old hunters, but as the tape in put in the back of the animal at the ground, it is say that it was along the curves, or along the body.

By the way, the particular heaviest lions are adjusted for stomach content. The lion of 260 kg was corrected to 240 kg (Hu Berry, Etosha, Namibia) and the lion of 280 kg was corrected to 250 kg (Almero, Timbavati, South Africa). For the old record of 251 kg in South Africa, it is not information about the stomach content.

Hope you like it, you can use it and in a next post, the lions from the west and north of Africa.

Greetings to all. Reply