The size of the Barbary lion

[GuateGojira]

(01-12-2022, 01:13 PM)acutidens150 Wrote: Guate, I estimated the average weight of the Barbary lion, using the 372.3mm skull, and got the weight between 193.8 - 211.5 kgs.
Thus, I politely disagree the statement that were "no larger than their West African cousins".
In my opinion, the Barbary lion was on average larger than their cousins from Southern African (Panthera leo melanochaita), but I expect that on maximum, a lion from Okavango delta or Ngorongoro Crater would surpass the maximum weight for a Barbary lion. 
Thank you.

There is a couple of points that we need to take in count. First, the skulls used in the study of J. H. Mazak are all from captive specimens (in fact, all the Barbary skulls are from captive specimens), and we know that captive lions develope bigger and more massive skulls than those from the wild. For example Dr Per Christiansen measured a dead lion that had a Condylobasal length of 359.7 mm (less than 4 mm than the biggest Barbary lion skull in the study) but its head-body length was only 185 (tail of 95 cm) and a weight of 203kg (already big for a lion). So using captive specimens to calculate weights, specially in lions, is not reliable.

There is no evidence to support that the Barbary lions were larger than any lion population. In fact, the available information suggest that South African lions are bigger in body, weight and skull measurements. In fact, Vratislav Mazák said that the biggest skull that he measured, appart from the captive lion of 402 mm GSL from Etiopia, was a wild male lion from South Africa classified as "Cape lion" had an estimated condylobasal length of c.355 mm (broken end), and that is the biggest condylobasal length ever recorded for a wild African lion. Barbary lions, been of the same population of lions from India and West Africa, was probably similar in size, but as we only have captive specimens to compare, it is only speculation. In fact, the lions from the Rabbat Zoo look large but are small compared to other captive lions. The measurements in litterature (which all came from the same French author) and those from stuffed specimens, are not reliable.

Finally, there are no available measurements from lions in Okavango, there are only visual estimations which are not reliable until we have real measurements (the same happen with Assam tigers). About Ngorongoro lions, there are no measurements published yet, and no weight has been taken, but from my personal communications with Dr Packer, the largest chest girth was of 143 cm, which is not exceptional compared to other lions from South Africa. 

Hope this helps. Reply