Lions of Sabi Sands

[Mapokser]

@Potato By dominant males I meant Ndhzengas.

When I say Tumbela is average I'm talking about the overall population, average like around 190kg, not compared to whatever the average in SS is right now.

And it's not like Delaporte couldn't appear big just because he wasn't standing. HB was lying down and briefly sitting when confronted by Nsuku but even then he appeared much bigger, and taller despite being sitting.

And I specified later what I meant by "was considered" regarding Nhenha.

The point is that we've seen NK with several males and females. While our only reference for Gijimas is an "average" from a photographer and "big" from one of the Londolozi guides.

Being seen together with other males is much better evidence than a guide who saw one male briefly and some other months or years later.

Let's look at how unreliable and contradictory these takes by rangers can be:

One of the Londolozi guides wrote that old Nhenha and Makhunga were the same size and the bigger Ndhzenga was only slightly smaller than them.

These opinions can be hella different if they're not seeing the males together. One other Londolozi guide said that the smaller Ndhzenga looked impressive when by himself, but when his bother joined him he was dwarfed, and he was also smaller than the females.

You've mentioned Neil Jennings to talk about Mantimahles being big, let's take him into consideration.

He said Red Road was bigger than DM Avoca and the Orpen Males, and that he was just slightly smaller than Scar Mbiri. Jr however was seen to be close to Ginger's size when he was only 3.5yo and a WE ranger said he thought DM would grow up to be roughly as big HB.

But let's accept RR is bigger for now. He weighed only 200-210kg with an empty stomach, even Mapogos weighed more, same Mapogos who didn't look bigger than Majingis in their confrontation, and 5th had a much bigger skull than KT who was just slightly smaller than even his biggest brother.

Majingis were seen chasing and getting chased back by Matimbas in mid 2011 in the north. Ranger Cedric who saw it said Majingis had the advantage of being a year older, but Matimbas had the advantage of having big bodies. Then same thing happened multiple times in 2015-2016 and Londolozi seeing that repeatedly said Matimbas were much larger than Majingis...

So what's going on here? How can Jr be smaller than RR like Neil claims? He was 3.5yo when he almost matched one of his fathers side by side, same father Londolozi saw in clashes with Majingis and claimed was much larger than Majingis, same Majingis seen with Mapogo, had much bigger skull and were stated to be bigger by a ranger who watched both coalitions for several years... Mapogos who weighed more than Red Road!

This shows how actually seeing lions together is more reliable than going by what a guide thinks by seeing them separately months of years apart, from different distances and angles...

NK who we saw with multiple males and females has a much better claim to being big than Gijimas who were never seen with anyone and all we have is 2 claims, one that they are average and one that they are big.

And then, Skorro is stated to be bigger than NK by a guide who sees them together. Reply