Modern Weights and Measurements of Wild Lions

[Pckts]

(02-05-2022, 09:53 PM)SpinoRex Wrote:

(02-05-2022, 09:24 PM)Pckts Wrote:

(02-05-2022, 08:57 PM)SpinoRex Wrote:

(02-05-2022, 08:51 PM)Hello Wrote: Not all reserves are semi-wild, there are some reserves in South Africa where lions are also fed additionally. For instance, take a look at lions from Aquila and Gondwana reserve.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Aquila game reserve

*This image is copyright of its original author

Gondwana reserve 

These lions don't even look close to their wild counterparts as they have little amount of fat on them. The heavy manes on theses lions are entirely dependent on the climate.

Generally reserves have sometimes captive ones and wild ones. Reserve generally have nothing to do with captive animals and they shouldnt be linked to that. But some offer hunting and so on (Selati Game Reserve). Just because a lion is overweight it doesnt mean he is captive but the assumption is reasonable of course.

The second lion doesnt look fat and looks quite normal but he is gorged

Private hunting reserves really shouldn’t be considered truly wild. They are more of a hybrid between captive and wild. 


No wild reserve has captive cats nor do they offer baits or control breedings and offspring. *unless a study is being done* Truly wild cats live a very different lifestyle. For instance, Smutts captured 300+ Lions, the largest ever weighed was 225kg but now you see claims of 280kg plus Lions in the same parks? Nothings changed, in fact there is less natural prey and land now compared to then. Unfortunately most of these parks survive off of Hunters dollars and the best way to get their money is to claim you have the largest lions. In modern days, the scientific community is the only reliable option while years past when hunting was much more limited to certain individuals, hunting weights were a better option.

It depends on what reservations we're talking about. The game reserves we know and the ones that are famous have mainly wild animals. Reserves offer canned hunting, where the lions live in large areas but still in captivity (i.e. Rhino NP). But I have heard that Timbavati is supposedly classified as semi-wild, which could not make less sense when talking about Ximpoko and Mabande. Ximpoko was often in Kruger and Mabande does not live in Timbavati anymore.

Quote:No wild reserve has captive cats nor do they offer baits or control breedings and offspring. *unless a study is being done* Truly wild cats live a very different lifestyle. For instance, Smutts captured 300+ Lions, the largest ever weighed was 225kg but now you see claims of 280kg plus Lions in the same parks? Nothings changed, in fact there is less natural prey and land now compared to then. Unfortunately most of these parks survive off of Hunters dollars and the best way to get their money is to claim you have the largest lions. In modern days, the scientific community is the only reliable option while years past when hunting was much more limited to certain individuals, hunting weights were a better option.

The info is relatively far-fetched. Smuts had weighed a total of 344 lions (158 males & 186 females) of all ages. In fact he just weighed 41 adult males in Kruger National park and the heaviest was 225 kg but had no stomach content. His sample generally lacked those big ones compared to the data provided by Roberts 1951 (132-251 kg, all ages n=17), MacFarlane and HuBerry

Quote:Measurements were recorded for 344 lions (Panthera leo) (158 males and 186 females), from Kruger National Park, South Africa. Growth in mass for males and females was linear up to about 36 months of age 0 = 0–98 and 0–99 respectively). The other age-specific measurements were clearly curvilinear. Mean weights for adult lions (excluding stomach contents) were 187.5 kg (males) and 124.2 kg (females) respectively.

https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1980.tb01433.x

Im not sure but wasnt Ximpoko confirmed to be 280 kg by the reserve and ecologist? These pics are from the user boldchamp

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Smuts had the largest and most reliable data base by far, most were from Kruger but he had some outside of that area as well. Stevenson-Hamilton shows similar weights as well as the others mentioned. 

Timbavati is notorious for being a white lion breeding ground which is human influenced. There’s no reason for it to produce larger Lions than neighboring Kruger or anywhere else other than the human influence. It’s also a hunting reserve which makes money on any claim of the largest trophies being found there.

I’ve yet to read a single Hunter from the past who’s been to both E. And S. Africa mention the Lions in S. Africa as being larger than the ones in the East. 

East Africa has the largest population of Lions left in the wild by far with the highest prey biomass. The only difference is that the hunting regulations are far more strict and limited there. And the largest Reserve is Selous but much more difficult to track animals compared to the 2nd largest which is the Serengeti and they don’t allow hunting at all. So most trophy hunters go to S. Africa so reserves there like to claim their lions as larger but when looking at real data prior to that influence the evidence doesn’t back those claims. Reply