A General Theory of the Size of Tigers

[Charger01]

(07-06-2022, 10:09 PM)LonePredator Wrote:

(07-05-2022, 03:35 AM)GuateGojira Wrote:

(01-31-2021, 04:08 PM)qocjfgh1014 Wrote: In the past, GuateGojira created a comparison of the size of the tigers.
It includes records measured by scientists and reliable historical records.
According to it, the tiger's total length is up to 315cm, its body length is up to 221cm, its standing height is up to 114cm and its weight up to 272kg

But I think tigers can be grow up to 225cm(in body length)(Mazak, 1983), 115cm high(in standing height)(Baikov, 1925) and weigh up to 320kg.

How much do you think tigers can grow to?

I did not noticed this post until now, more than one year later!

In order to get a plausible answer to this question, we need to focus on two subspecies/populations, the Bengal and the Amur tigers. Caspian and Indochina tigers had reports of specimens that almoust equal its sizes, but are rare and the biggest Bengal/Amur tigers are the biggest cats in modern records.

In previous comparative images I stated that the longest tiger measured "between pegs" was the biggest male recorded by Meinertzhagen with 315 cm, but now I accept and use the tiger of 323 cm reported by Gordon as all the measurements seems correct for an animal measured "between pegs". However, total length is not the best form the get the real size of a tiger, as the biggest tiger reported at this moment is the huge male of Brander with 221 cm in head-body, but with a tail of less than 90 cm, and if that tiger would had a tail of 113 cm like the Sauraha male of Nepal, it could measure no less than 330 cm! That is why I firmly believe that the existence of tigers of up to 330 cm "between pegs" is/was possible although very rare. On the Amur side, the biggest male actually measured in the wild was of 210 cm head-body "over curves" (probably around 195 cm "between pegs"), but the report of Mazák about the biggest tiger reported by Yankovsky (350 cm "over curves" - 330 cm "between pegs") suggest, according with him, a head-body of 225 cm "between pegs". There is also the report of the huge tiger of Colonel Ramsay, which measurements match and surpass those from the big tiger of Brander and its head-body "between pegs" was probably between 225 - 230 cm; its shoulder height was of 109 cm, chest girth of 160 cm.

Using this information, we can say that the biggest male tigers can reach measurements over 220 cm "between pegs" but in very rare occasions, with a plausible length of up to 230 cm. However, this maximum size was certainly reached or surpassed by the Pleistocene tigers, with the maximum estimated head-body length for Wanhsien tiger (Panthera tigris acutidens) of 220 cm and for Ngandong tiger (Panthera tigris soloensis) was between 230 - 240 cm, depending of the method. All these length measurements were estimated to be "between pegs".

About the shoulder height, the maximum reported by Brander, Cooch Behar and Shillingford, is between 112 - 114 cm "between pegs", but Mazák believed that up to 110 cm in real standing height is already amazing. The figure of 115 cm reported by Baikov is not a correct measurement as he associated it with a length of 390 cm, which is certainly a skin measurement. Under this evidence of record tigers, we can see that a hunted tiger measured in the floor "between pegs" will be up to 114 cm based in actual records, but in real standing height probably do not surpass the 110 cm (walking tigers do not stand 100% straight).

Finally, about the body mass, there is a debate about the hunting records, that is why I stated the maximum figure of 272 kg as this one was recorded by scientists. However, in the side of Bengal tigers, there  are some records that surpass that figure and the biggest male tiger recorded in the Indian subcontinent is a male of 320 kg (the record reported by Guinness of 389 kg is not reliable) reported from Nepal, in the area that will be know as Chitwan in the future. However, as this male was probably baited, its "empty" weight could be around 290 kg, probably a little more as the tiger was still running and fighting before its death, which suggest that the tigers was not gorged and could actually weighed 300 kg "empty". Amur tigers had been reported with body masses of over 300 kg and up to 384 kg, however a study made by scientists showed that the biggest weight reliable recorded was a male of 254 kg (Slaght et al., 2005). There is the case of a male of 325 kg reported from Kirin province (northeast China) that is still in doubt, the problem is that Slagth et al. (2005) found the record from a French translation (1938) of the original document (1929), and when they checked and English translation (1936) they found that the weight was not mentioned there. So, as they could not found the original document from Baikov of 1929 (the one that was used by Heptner & Sludskii), they leave it as "unreliable".

Using all this information, we can say that the biggest tigers recorded could measured c.225 cm in head-body "between pegs", a standing height of 110 cm, chest girth of 160 cm and a weight of c.290 kg "empty". This will be a real giant, but normally the "longest" is not the "tallest" and certainly long bodied tigers are not guarantee that are the "heaviest". This is normal among animals and even human, so no big surprise.

Any doubt, feel free to ask.

Greetings.

The Col. Ramsay Tiger would have been huge. From the measurements he gave, the head-body length of the Tiger between pegs would have been no less than 231cm.

I believe that the head-body length in straight line is about 95% of the head-body length over the curves and this relation would probably work well in most cases.

What do you think of making a compilation of the weights and measurements of EVERY individual Tiger?? I understand this would take a lot of time and effort but I am willing to do all the compilation work and I also have access to most of the sources you listed in your references but could you provide the data which is not accessible??

I had also considered making the compilation of the length and weights of all crocodile but the problem is that almost all that is available is about saltwater crocodiles and other than that a little about Nile Crocodiles but the data for other species is almost non-existent and we also don’t know the ages of the crocodile in almost any of these cases.

I compiled something similar for as many individual tigers as I could find. Mainly used 3 measurements- Total length, Head-Body length and Chest girth. Will share in some time Reply