Modern weights and measurements on wild tigers

[Shadow]

(09-24-2020, 04:44 PM)Rishi Wrote:

(09-24-2020, 04:38 PM)Shadow Wrote:

(09-24-2020, 03:37 PM)Rishi Wrote:

(09-24-2020, 03:10 PM)Scout Wrote:

(09-24-2020, 01:26 PM)Ashutosh Wrote: @Scout, I am sorry but none of those tigers are in the exceptional category, they are impressive but not exceptional in terms of size. Waghdoh has never been classified as the biggest tiger in India.

If you are looking for the exceptional ones, you have the enormous male from Rajaji, hairyfoot from Panna, Kaziranga male shifted to Manas, A few other Kaziranga males like Kzt 085, kzt 083, kzt 023 and couple of really big ones from Terai. Pictures of all the above mentioned males are available on wildfact itself.

Im pretty sure that Waghdoh hasnt gained his reputation for nothing. Its true that we have no weight information, but he is big otherwise why would people say he is big?

And same goes for KAZI-59
Here he can be seen hunting cows - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH7jB1Ky9sk

Just as big as KTZ-085 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOtSnxrwcKc

Please don't share same link multiple times... And not only they were at different distances from their respective preys, unless we can confirm those cows where of same size we can't compare fairly, can we?

Wagdoh is(was) actually very stocky & stout. People who have seen many tigers that can compare him to other famous males, have told that he's big but not as big as many of his peers.
And recently we got a photo of him crossing railway line, by which his body length measured out to be less than 6ft (I think it's in this thread only).

Since there is so much speculation of sizes from photos, which are pretty useless usually, imo, I put here some remarks to think about.

So this railway photo concerning Wagdoh.

First, it´s very difficult to make exact estimation even from this photo since it´s so 2-dimensional, it´s quite impossible to know from where should be measured distance between rails so, that it would be at same level exactly as Wagdoh is. But I tried to do it so, that it would be at least approximately right. So when I measured that distance between inner sides of rails, which is Indian standard 1676 mm and after it measuring body without tail for obvious reasons, I got result 1892 mm. Obviously if he would be measured between the pegs as usually, he would be more stretched, imo and he could be longer.

Then again as I have drawn above, this kind of 2-dimensional photo has problems and can make an illusion of the position. If Wagdoh is here even slightly so, that backside further than head, he looks a bit shorter than he is. That red line above is on my screen 26 mm and line below is 25 mm. Still that slightly longer line would look shorter in photo if taken from direction which is marked with black arrow. So longer would look shorter.

Based on this photo body lenght of Wagdoh could be anything in between maybe 180-210 cm, if he would be measured properly while tranquilazed.

I´m very critical to all photos shared with claims of "huge" this and that if there isn´t something really good to compare with. Estimations can be made, but usually those are rough. Huge can be in reality average, just a nice photo showing muscles good.

Then again this photo is good in that way, that some other poster included that photo of Wagdoh in his prime side by side. He is now 17 years old if I remember right(?). So when people have seen him for instance 4-5 years ago, they haven´t seen him in his prime not to mention if some people have seen him during last 1-2 years and then saying, that "oh, he is small in comparison with this and that tiger". 

People tend to have short memory and without a doubt reputation of Wagdoh is base on his size in his prime condition. Without seeing him right next to some other big one, it´s quite impossible to say too good estimations who is bigger or smaller so, that someone could be 100% sure. Also in Wildfact posters have had many arguments concerning it, that which tiger is bigger than some other. And both sides very sure, that being right and other poster right. One reason why I prefer to see studies and confirmed measurements and weights.

What comes to Wagdoh, even though there is no tiger which could be called the biggest tiger of India without a doubt, Wagdoh has been often called maybe the biggest tiger of India etc. I haven´t seen anyone proving otherwise in any reliable way, of course it can´t be proven that there wouldn´t have been some bigger tiger. It depends from whom is asked as far as I have seen. 

Anyway here is the photo to show what I meant and why I´m very cautious with photos.

Yeah, but you gotta work with what you've got, right?

Thankfully most of the time they tend to cross roads & raillines at right angle... Not a big fan of those.

Yes, estimations can be made and it´s kind of fun too. Sometimes there are some really good photos, I still want to point how difficult it is in reality and how there are things which can have relatively big effect and many don´t think about. Photos are always tricky and that´s why I try to avoid making too big conclusions to one direction or another based on some random photos. Rough estimations are usually the best what can be made without measurement tape and scale. Reply