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

[lionjaguar]

(10-03-2019, 10:59 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote:

(10-03-2019, 09:16 AM)lionjaguar Wrote: I can't understand after reading this. What is the biggest lion? The Cape lion and Barbary lion were not the biggest lions? Why so many information in internet and book are still saying those 2 lions were the biggest lions?

By reliable measurements, the biggest lion is the Southern subspecies (Panthera leo melanochaita) present in Eastern and Southern Africa, with lions in Southern Africa (e.g. South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia) having higher average weights than their relatives in Eastern Africa (see the work of Smuts et al.), and members of the Northern subspecies (Panthera leo leo) in Asia and northern parts of Africa at least looking smaller than the former subspecies.


Heptner and Sludskiy on the lions: https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2.../84/mode/2
As someone remarked in this forum for hunters (after someone suggested that this was the biggest African lion), it looks like a "black-maned" Cape lion: 


Just as the Amur tigers above aren't necessarily bigger than that Bengal tiger, the lion above doesn't have to be bigger than this Southwest African lion in Etosha National Park, Namibia, but it may look bigger than this lion because of its thick, belly-covering mane: http://www.africaphotography.co.za/etosha-august-2014/

*This image is copyright of its original author

These so-called "Barbary lions" look bigger than other lions because of their manes and muscular physiques: 

I didn't talked about other cats. I only talked about lion. Anyway, I am talking about population or location of lions. Which lions are the largest?
Some people are saying that lions in the Ngorongoro Crater are the biggest. Some people are saying lions in the Okavango are the biggest. Some people are saying lions in the southern Africa, my belief is they are referring areas like Kruger, are the biggest Reply