Modern Weights and Measurements of Leopards

[Balam]

@"loveanimals"

I think you're referring the chart with leopard weights divided by age class from Kwazulu-Natal. The average weight of 72 kg belongs only to leopards in their prime age rather than the full adulthood spectrum, it does give an idea of what the average size for a leopard in that area would likely be depending on their age, but it's not an accurate determinant of the average weight of adult leopards as a whole because it excludes other age classes within the realm of adulthood.

This is important to point out because people will take the 72 kg average for males of ~8 years of age to compare to population averages for other species (i.e. cougars), which is completely deceptive because the averages gathered for other species always include adults from across different ages after they reach sexual maturity; this includes animals as young as 2.5/3 years of age, to really old and battered ones of 13+ years of age. Removing the young and older adults from the sample for one species gives an inaccurate, flattering look for it against the other one.

Leopards from places like Sri Lanka do weight around 57 kg on average per scientific data (Sunquist), whether the prime males would weight slightly more if we separated a sample of them exclusively from the rest is irrelevant to the overall average for adult males in that population. Reply