Who's Been To Africa?

[Luipaard]

@Pckts 

Quote:Actually I was the one who stated that and I also stated that you'd be surprised as to how they actually compare to Indian Leopards, I've heard they are no larger.

As I've mentioned before; they're larger than Indian leopards but not in the same league as Persian or rainforest leopards.

As far as I know, there are measurements of 10 adult male leopard skulls from Sri Lanka from scientific sources. The average greatest length and width for these is 239mm and 153mm. This is a bit larger than the average for adult male skulls from India (233mm x 150mm, n=16) and Southern Africa (231mm x 145mm, n=18). The biggest Sri Lankan leopard skull from this sample in terms of total score is from the Bilhulaya area (central highlands) which measured 16.02" (246mm x 161mm). None of the skulls in the available data appear to be from Yala, 4 of them are from Wilpattu NP where leopards are smaller. Interestingly, the 2 skulls from the central highlands were also the 2 biggest in the sample. 

I know you don't like this comparison (different angle, etc). But this is what a large male from Yala looks like next to a South African male. The South African male on the left was a large one named Mvula.

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Quote:Considering Larger Skulls have came out of C. and E. Africa, I disagree that Persians and Rainforest Leopards are the "largest hands down." Persians are definitely the Longest but their highest weights and skulls have been matched by African Leoapards. But overall if you're comparing all of African Leopard's to Persian's then yes, Persians should be the largest subspecies.

No? I have shared the top skull measurements many, many times before. The Central African leopards dominate the list alongside the Persian leopards. Same goes for the weight chart where multiple males weighed above 85kg, 3 even above the infamous 90kg barrier (excluding the also infamous 115kg male).

More skull measurements:

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In the paper Status assessment of the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus) in Iran, Sanei gives the average length and width of skulls as 244 and 162mm.

Regarding Kenya;

One of the key ingredients definitely has to be the lack or lower density of larger competitors (ie. lions and tigers). Prey abundance and prey size/robustness along with climate are also important factors. In East Africa, the largest leopards are from mountainous regions which tend to be heavily forested. Thus in these areas they too can be expected to have had much reduced interaction with lions even historically. Although lions certainly did inhabit the East African mountains they would've largely been concentrated in the more open areas as opposed to the dense rainforests. The forest/savanna mosaic environment in these areas would have allowed much greater spatial separation between lions and leopards at a local level than in the savanna bushveld environment in the lowlands. PH Hamilton also vattributes the large size of highland forest leopards (from Aberdares and Mt Kenya area) to plentiful prey and few lions in their environment.

Here's a huge leopard shot by G. Munn on Mt Kenya in 1961 which measured 8'2" long, weighed 212lbs and had an 18.75" skull (length+width).

*This image is copyright of its original author

Here's a big male from Masai Mara, Kenya. Large skull and huge dewlap

*This image is copyright of its original author

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