Size comparisons

[Luipaard]

@Pckts 

Your point is? There is no larger subspecies and they all overlap? Let's not forget where the largest males come from:

*This image is copyright of its original author

What a coincidence, Central African leopards dominate the list alongside Persian leopards. It's becouse they're the largest subspecies.

And what about these Persian leopards who were weighted:

*This image is copyright of its original author

A 90kg leopard is rare in South Africa, which is why Vin Diesel (90kg) was so famous at the time. Meanwhile they've found not one but 3 Persian leopards within that range. (And let's not talk about the 115kg male, even if it it's exaggerated, he will still be within the 90-100kg range). 

As I've mentioned many times, a skull size is a good indication of how large an animal is. South African or Indian male leopards struggle to reach the average skull size of a Central African leopard. A South African leopard with skull measurements of 255.4 and 164.6mm is seen as a big male. For Central African leopards, that's just an average male. 

Also, comparing a South American jaguar with a mediocre Indian leopard isn't the right thing to do. Having the same posture in a photo isn't enough to compare.  If you use a large jaguar, which they are in Brazil, you should also use a large leopard.

This male from Kenya, Aberdare below makes the Indian leopard look like a different species of animal. Too bad I can't find a good picture with a good angle of a Central African male leopard. Would easily be on par with the jaguar below.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Also that post from Facebook is so vague with lack of good information. For example; he claims that the weight of a jaguaress is between 85 – 90 kg. How strange that a Mexican MALE jaguar averages 50kg. This poster takes Pantanal jaguars as the norm. Males weighing 110 -120 kg? Yeah Pantanal ones or those from Llanos Venezuela. This guy isn't aware of the fact that two male jaguars from the Peruvian Amazon weighed 31 and 37kg. So I can claim that female leopards are bigger than jaguars if I take these Peruvian jaguars as the norm. See where I'm going at?

Nothing will change my view on leopards; their weights overlap indeed, their weights overlap with (South American) jaguars. BUT there are subspecies who are just bigger than others. South African are common ones with the usual size and weights alongside Indian leopards. But Persian and Sri Lankan leopards are bigger. Central African (male) leopards are in a different league. Even researchers from Panthera admit that. Reply