Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos

[andeancat]

@Rishi 

I am a health science researcher with an emphasis on human health.  Undergrad was in biological sciences.  I am in the process of filling in the gaps in the scientific records of Asiatic and West African lions.  I have most of Johnsingh, Chellam and 
Jhala publications, but this is several hundred pages of data, and I have not found the time to look over all of it.  I also suspect that they don't often publish weights from the field.  There is a commonly held belief that P. l. leo is inferior in size to P. l. melanochaita, but I don't think the data supports this.  Now that P. l. leo has been largely eliminated, except for isolated pockets this is probably true, but evaluating historic skull measurements the two subspecies were probably of similar size.  Asiatic lions are probably similar size to the lions found in the Serengeti and the largest living lions are found Southern Africa (even though some East African lions maybe bulkier and surpass them in weight).  It should be noted that the primary prey of Asiatic lions is the chital deer which are smaller than the prey is most of Africa.  If the Asiatic lion has more access to large game they would likely be larger and heavier. Reply