Modern Weights and Measurements of Wild Lions

[SpinoRex]

(02-16-2022, 03:18 AM)GuateGojira Wrote:

(02-16-2022, 01:32 AM)SpinoRex Wrote: But i said clearly before that the estimates alone are useless. With that i mentioned the MDR which was just a measurement "start" for the scientists of what a lion SHOULD eat. At the end they averaged a bit above it with c.11 kg including NT males but as NT males are pretty inconsistent it should be noted sperately as (9.4 kg, 13.2 kg)

I saw the pictures of Puyol. There is no doubt he had stomach content but i doubt he was really gorged. Puyol was c.4 years old. From the pictures i estimate him in the neighborhood of 220 kg.

But that is the point, estimations are just about what they should eat, but not what they actually eat. NT may eat more but less frequently while TM may eat less but more frequently, that is what I see in the study, but actually TM eat more overall. That is fact, specially for the easy life of a male lion.

Now, about Puyol I clearly said "IF". No one is saying that was actually gorged, althoug the same author suggest that it was. The belly is not so big so for a 4 years old male lion 200 kg is not out of question. 220 is a bit high for a lion of that age, but may happen. At the end, the scale used was imperfect, as they say, so the real weight could be very good about 215 - 220 kg empty, taking in count a good meal between 15 - 20 kg, which is normal for an adult male lion.

I decided to use the figure of 235 kg and add a note about the stomach content. You can see it in my table from many years ago. Puyol is not a new male for anyone here and this topic is an old discussion, that at the end is unimportant, as most of the male lions in modern records DO include stomach contents. So, there is no point in trying to adjust weights, that is only an excuse to try to diminish the weights of some tigers (specially those from Nepal), but we should use the weights are they are as we can't know the real amount of food, unless we can actually weigh it. Even then, as you can see, I do adjusted the weights from tigers and I used the weights for lions as they are reported (not adjusted). Incredible, the tigers still dominate the scale.

I overall dont know the circumstances of a NT male (as some can have alliances). But given the conditions and stress they are living they wont survive well. The sucessrate of a NT male isnt measured but from what i have researched it isnt actually significantly lower as we are talking about males in this case, which are of course more experienced, which means its higher than the overall. Which is the reason for the average food intake with large samples. We have the food intake of Pride males and it was just 9.4 kg, which may indicate as i said a safe live (not easy by far of course). Lions are generally lean and fit but have a high potential of course.

The alliances of some male lions will definetely surpass most pride males in just individual size. Like as i said Mabande and Ximpoko who were nomads with a terretory (at least at the time when they were weighed). These arent the only ones i have seen. Lions who are doing well completely alone can be found. Those nomadic males are massive, with just some out of many pride males reaching that level. The nomadic males i am talking about is for example kalamas, the Kenya lion and various nomadic male lions alone or together.

Overall there are tons of factors. But the fact remained that NT males ate on average more than a T male by a great margin, although being more under pressure and so on. Over 3 hyenas per kill is a very high number actually

But a male tiger is completely different. Not only in their lifestyle (Solitary) but also compared to a male(esp NT) in africa they are better conditioned . So a terretorial male tiger is definetely above a pride male in terms of food intake just looking at the significant difference. I made that conclusion just after seeing the data and the other discussions were just assumptions from the past.

Regarding the Nepal males only 2 adult males were collared by Sunquist thats safe to say. The rest are adult females.

I mean 9.4 kg on average for a pride male from kruger (may be lower in other areas) is more a diet for a fit lion. Thats not impressive at all.

Thats just my opinion but its definetely reasonable. Reply