Size comparisons

[epaiva]

(07-15-2019, 07:56 PM)GuateGojira Wrote:

(07-15-2019, 02:14 PM)Luipaard Wrote: I didn't try anything, I just happened to have proof that the jaguar was gorged. This way, we could subtract 10-15 kg based on what Rafael Hoogesteijn said himself.
Also, that other chart showed us 2 males weighing 66 and 86 kg, they were dead so obviously not gorged. Regarding the other weight chart, we can't tell how much we have to subtract like we can with the 148 kg jaguar.

I will add something in this point. I had a direct conversation with Dr Hoogesteijn about the weight of the large jaguar of 148 kg. He mention that he used bait to capture him, so I told him that probably the weight of the animal was between 130 - 140 kg, however he corrected me and he told me that they used chickens to attract the jaguars so he personally told me that the amount eat by the jaguar was only about 4-5 kg, so the empty belly weight of that Pantanal jaguar was probably of no less than 143 kg, based on this evidence. As far I know, this is still the scientific record of any jaguar in the world.

Now, what about the figures of 158 kg normally published? They came from the records of Sasha Siemel and he says that his heaviest jaguar was of 350 lb (158.8 kg) and came from a jaguar called "El Assesino" (The assasin) but if you see its picutures it was heavy gorged. De Almeida estimated that a big jaguar will weight about 120 kg empty and over 130 kg in exceptional cases, those jaguars of the Pantanal are very big and certainly did reached over 140 kg empty.

I don't know how accurate is the weight of 158 kg that I see in some posts here about a particular big male. We must be carefull with reports from webpages, I recall a case when a tiger was reported to be 280 kg in one of those articles, but when I checked it resulted that it was just an estimate, the tiger was never weighed.

Now, if we compare the jaguar to other cats, definitelly it is the largest of all the felids, excluding tigers and lions, and the only one that reach weights over 120 kg "confirmed". The heaviest puma from hunting records reported by Sunquist & Sunquist (2002) was a male of 125 kg "evicerated", but Hornocker & Negri (2010) says that this weight is bases in a "hearsay" and concluded that the heaviest puma reliably recorded was a male of 232 lb (105.2 kg) killed by President Roosevelt in Colorado. From a list of 85 specimenst from diferente regions of America, the heaviest male was of 80 kg and came from Chile (Sunquist & Sunqusit, 2002). There are many other samples from scientific studies and as far I know, no puma surpassed that weight reported from Chile.

On the leopard side, we have may samples from many countries, to be fair the sample from Central Africa is very poor and large skulls from the area suggest big animals, but are not bigger than those from Persia region. Leopards from 90 kg has been reported from South Africa, but included stomach content (Sunquist & Sunquist, 2002) and as far I know the heaviest leopards came from Iran with a maximum of 91 kg. I don't know if they bait the leopards to be honest, but remember that they can also use the snare method to campture them. Dr Farhadinia says that based in his studies the leopards of Iran are the largest of the world in this moment. From here came the record of the leopard of 115 kg which was exceptional in any sence as any leopard in hunting or sceintific records, reached that weight, but if includes stomach contect or not, it is not reported and I see that some people do not belive on it, althought it was confirmed by scientists. If we use the scientific records as base, between 70 to 80 kg is already a large male leopard and few animals surpass that range, if we exclude stomach content. I have a record from a leopard in India of over 80 kg, but Dr Atreya says that includes stomach content. The heaviest leopard on records, appart from the big male from Iran, is a male from Namibia that weighed 96 kg, apparently with no stomach content (Brain, 1981). From a sample of 77 males of diferent areas the heaviest male was of 71.3 kg from Zimbabwe, but to be fair the figures of Kruger NP just includes averages and the extremes, which I rememeber was more than 70 kg. 

It seems, from the evidence that we have, that leopards and pumas compete for the third place, althought the smallest leopard population is smaller thant he smallest puma population, that I have saw. Jaguars are other level, they surpass these two cats on size, and althought the smallest populations match with the leopards and pumas in sizes, they are still bigger: 56.1 kg jaguar-Belize - 41 kg  Puma-Paraguay - 30.9 kg leopard-Cape Province. There is overlap in these three species, but certainly only the jaguar surpass the 100 kg regularly. Please take in count that this list is not exaustive, but only the figures that I have in my mind and the books at hand now, but certainly represent some of the best of the info that you can found in any place.

@GuateGojira
Very good and valuable information, thanks for sharing my Friend Reply