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

[GuateGojira]

(11-15-2019, 09:11 AM)BlakeW39 Wrote: I'm mostly a lurker, but I must say that whenever you post it is a true joy to me haha. Much respect man.

Anyway, it appears like lions of southern Africa have an approximate average body mass of 192kg or approximately 425lbs, in juxtaposition to the cats most usually compared to them, other lion populations as well as tigers: East African lions weigh 400-410lbs on average or 180-185kg? This would mean that Southern African lions are approximately (if we take these as, say, 181kg) 10kg or 22lbs heavier which a difference of 6%, similar to Begal tigers which if I remember correctly you calculated to average approximately 205kg, a 6% difference. The northern populations of lions all seem to be smaller than the above larger cats - 170-175kg, which is >400lbs, potentially as low as 160kg though I believe that low number may be just due to scarcity of prey. I think this gives us a good understanding of where it's all at, yes?

Might you know where these lion populations stand in terms of girth or robusticity/build? I wanted to ask you this on the tiger thread as well but I figured I'd dig through that one to see if there are any, though if you have an average memorized it'd be very much appreciated. Also are the Okavango lions measured? Similarly the Ngorongoro beasts? The Ngorongoro lions seem to be more of an outlier, but the Okavango would raise the Botswanan average, no? Thanks!

Thanks for your support!

I will say that about 191 kg is the average for male lions in Souther Africa overall and about 174 kg for those in East Africa overall. Those from West Africa are of 158 kg and those from India are 163 kg. Those from the Barbary region are unknown and also all the population from middle east, which based in skulls and artistic representations seems to be small (Divyabhanusinh, 2005). For Bengal tigers, the average weight of 200 kg is correct for the Bengal tiger including Sundarbans or 210 kg for mainland males only. For details on Bengal tigers check the following link, post No. 362 and others previous to it: https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-modern-...rs?page=25

On the chest girths, you can see the details in my previous posts in this topic, specifically No. 260 and 278.

There are no measurements from lions in the Okavango delta and about the Ngorongoro crater, just chest measurements are available and are matched (or maybe surpassed?) by the lions in Namibia. There is confusion about the lions from Okavango, the Jouberts said that the "lionesses" were exceptionally large based in visual perception but they never said that about male lions. Sadly there are no measurements or weights available for tha specific area yet. Reply