Modern Weights and Measurements of Jaguars

[peter]

BALAM - DARK JAGUAR

I didn't find anything on jaguars and food intake. There is, however, a bit more on belly extension and the amount of food eaten in lions. I'm referring to a drawing that was posted a long time ago. I can't find it, but I did find a table on Cooch Behar tigers. It was posted in the tiger thread in January 2016.

It is about 'All male tigers' and 'Gorged and immature tigers'. In length and body dimensions, both groups compared very nicely. The 7 'gorged' male tigers (2 immature male tigers were left out of the equasion) averaged 512 pounds (see the liner notes, -b-), whereas all male tigers (n=53) averaged 461 pounds. The problem is this sample (referring to the 53 male tigers actually weighed) includes the 7 'gorged' tigers. 

There are different ways to get to a conclusion on the amount of meat a male tiger is able to consume. I leave that one up to you. Here's the table:      

*This image is copyright of its original author

Wild lions and tigers, as many pictures show, can eat a lot. A 'gorged' tiger or lion always has an extended belly. I never saw a picture of a 'gorged' leopard or jaguar. Could be a result of coincidence, but it's also possible jaguars and leopards seldom gorge themselves. We don't know.

I'm not sure if 'gorging' is related to size. In their great study on wild Amur tigers ('Winter ecology of the Amur tiger - Based upon observations in the west-central Sichore-Alin Mountains 1970-1973 and 1996-2010', second revised edition, Vladivostok, 2012), Yudakov and Nikolaev (referring to the period 1970-1973) wrote male tigers in particular not seldom left a quite substantial part of animals they killed untouched. Remarkable, as many posters assume Amur tigers struggle to make a living. Could be true. I saw hundreds of photographs and dozens of videos and documentaries about wild Amur tigers. Not one of them was even close to 'gorged'. 

In the recent past, however, things could have been somewhat different. Amur tigers hunting humans in the recent past (referring to, for instance, 'Big game hunting in Manchuria', N. Baikov, English translation, London, 1936) usually left next to nothing. The very large tiger shot by a member of Jankowski's team in 1943 had a lot of body fat. There are more reports about very heavy Amur tigers shot in that period (1890-1960). What do we really know? 

Anyhow. I'm sure I saw a drawing of the relation between belly extension and weight in wild lions. Could have been in the study of Smuts (on the growth of lions), but I'm not sure. My advice is to read a few studies on the growth and size of wild lions in southern Africa. Reply