Modern Weights and Measurements of Jaguars

[peter]

(08-25-2020, 06:04 AM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: @Balam

I will try to contact Tortato to get the confirmation on Juru's capture but after that claim I'm starting to think Globo estimated him.

@Pckts

Master Crawshaw returned and passed me the others measurements of the Porto Primavera jaguars.


PORTO PRIMAVERA JAGUARS MEASUREMENTS.

Pita male 130kg, thorax girth 114 cm, shoulder height 70,0 cm, body length 151,0 cm.

Zezão male 110kg, thorax girth 99 cm, shoulder height 80,0 cm, body length 143,0 cm.

Sueli female 77kg, thorax girth 96 cm, shoulder height 78,0 cm, body length 129,0 cm.


Measurement method by Crawshaw's word: '' Measurements in straight line, never following the curves of the body. ''

1 - Method used to measure the length of jaguars

" ... never following the curves of the body ... " (from your post). Very good. A curve measurement can be added, but only measurements taken 'between pegs' reflect the true length of a cat. Head and body and tail should be measured separately. 

2 - Body dimensions 

Try to find out in what way the chest is measured. I ask, because researchers not seldom only measure half of the chest (big cats are heavy animals) and multiply the outcome. In order to compare them to other big cats, we also need the neck, head and fore-arm circumference.

3 - Information on the size of wild jaguars in Brazil 

Many thanks for the measurements, Balam and Dark Jaguar. Good work. My guess is Wildfact now is one of the few public forums offering reliable (and recent) information about the size of all four big cats. Jaguarwise, you really filled a gap. 

4 - Pantanal and Caatinga jaguars

The information you posted shows large male Pantanal jaguars can be up to three times as heavy as large male Caatinga jaguars. This then is the effect of conditions and, most probably, population size (and density). Remarkable.

5 - Tables

If you post a new table, Balam, add as many body measurements as possible (head and body length, tail length and chest- , neck- , head- and fore-arm circumference). The more we know, the better the chance to get to good conclusions.

In order to prevent problems, a distinction between sources has to be made. You can, for example, post a table based on the book of T. de Almeida and one based on recent research in the Pantanal. In this way, you can get to conclusions on differences between hunters and researchers. This is necessary, because hunters tend to select large individuals, whereas researchers dart and measure every jaguar they can, including immature and/or unhealthy individuals. 

I'm not suggesting records of hunters are unreliable (in my opinion, quite a few compare to researchers in this respect). What I'm saying is selection has a result. Doing two tables enables you to quantify the effect.  

My advice is to distinguish between regions as well. In jaguars, the difference between regions seems to be quite outspoken.    

In order to give an example of what I mean, I added a table I posted in the tiger extinction thread in 2016. It's based on measurements in the book of the Maharajah of Cooch Behar published in 1908. As it has a lot of information (including liner notes), errors are difficult to avoid. The advantage is it offers overview:   
  

*This image is copyright of its original author

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