Size comparisons

[Luipaard]

@Shadow I am to blame for discussing this subject on various threads ('Size comparisons', 'Impressive females', 'Persian leopard', ...). It's just that this is such an interesting subject. We just discovered that the male jaguar weighing 158 kg was incorrect just becouse of discussing about it. 

I will try to get in touch with Jo Taylor once again. Like you said, it's worth the shot. I've been digging deep into these particular leopards and when looking at videos, camera trap photos, skull measurements... I come to the conclusion that there is many evidence of how big and impressive these leopards can get which beyond most people realize.

Not so long ago, I read something about a skull of an old male leopard killed in the North Eastern DR Congo in the 1940s. This skull (KBIN 8640) is held in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.

The skull has a condylobasal length of 264mm and a zygomatic width of 186mm. Its greatest length isn't stated as the occipital crest was probably damaged but would've easily been in the 290-300mm range. In any case the condylobasal length can be considered at least as good a measure of overall skull size.

For comparison, the heaviest male jaguar weighed for which skull measurements are available (there are several) was a male from the Venezuelan Llanos documented by Hoogenstein and Mondolfi which weighed 121kg (empty stomach) with a condylobasal skull length of 272mm and a zygomatic width of 185mm. Admittedly, this huge jaguar had a relatively narrow skull for its species

I know we can't directly compare skulls of both species but I say it's very impressive that a leopard can have a skull comparable in dimensions to large individual male jaguars from Pantanal and Llanos.

To put things in perspective, Indian or African savanna leopards struggle to exceed the 250mm (in total length) mark.

This particular specimen is currently the largest leopard when looking at his measurements (brace yourself, for I have shared this list many times before):

(Largest skulls from scientific sources)

*This image is copyright of its original author

As you can see, only 3 males were not from either Iran or Central Africa but from Uganda, Egypt and Sudan. Reply