Modern Weights and Measurements of Wild Lions

[GuateGojira]

(02-27-2022, 09:12 PM)SpinoRex Wrote: The emails are from the user Ahmed. He forwarded me the email. If you want i can forward it to you.

He was replying to the one email from 2008. The infos regarding the male are enough regardless of the claims. He attacked a tourist camp, which means he was really starving for a time and therefore completely empty. The male of 225 kg was probably small and really bulky because Smuts showed in his book lions of 218 kg that looked completely normal

The body condition for this lion is therefire completely normal and healthy as indicated by Kock. Compare Ximpoko in his nomadic times( abit higher fat percentage.. comparable to kocks lion i guess) and when he was a pride male(leaner). He had a normal fat percentage for any wild lion of this weight (at similar dimensions). Moderate means normal and the lowe ones (170-80) will be moderate low, the modertae lions will be most likely (190-200 kg) and the ones that are moderate high (225 kg+ it at average dimensions)

I expected him to be obese before i saw his skeleton. His skeleton suggest he was able to put on a HUGE amount of muscle mass but of course fat. Naturally its impossible for a wild cat at normal dimensions to be 272 kg empty with normal bodycondition. This lion was an outlier most likely and definetely a exception. The lion ximpoko and the Kanha male were also said to be exceptionally large. BDM was said to be bigger by far than ximpoko (acc to Almero, his biggest male he ever saw or captured with a root girth of an adult human ankle)

TIMBAVATI

Though lions are free in timbavati they go in different NPs or Reserves. The 2 males were collared for scientific purposes so thats no the problem. 

I will quote what was written

Quote:The Leopard research project darted the two nomadic males to gather information on the cats and to check the collar of the younger male, to ensure that the collar is still fitted correctly and that it is not causing him any discomfit. The plan is to keep the collar on him until March next year so that they can gather as much information as possible (such as the size of their territory and the impact they have in that area).

On average male lions weigh between 210kg to 250kg, and females between 170kg to 190kg. One of the interesting facts gathered by the darting of the males, is that the bigger of the two is a whopping 280kg – a significant difference in what is considered average (please note that this male was weighed shortly after eating)!

We will keep you up to date as the dynamic between these two nomadic males and the Machaton pride develops.
Until next time,

Richard

 
The left lion is ximpoko and the right one Mabande

Good propaganda for the park, two exceptional males of 250 kg, one of them empthy. Big by any standard.


Smuts did not said anything about the lion of 225 kg, nor that was small or that was big, so your speculation is not necesary. Only thing that we know is that was fat altough empty.

About the lion of 272 kg, of course it was in good form, that animal was feeding in good beef for a lot of time. His bones were much better than your regular Serengeti lion and its mass reflected that. Still wild, but with good food, it shows what a magnificent outlier it was.

Now, about the emptyness, it not necesarily means that attacked by hungry, cattle killers that eventually became in man eaters attack with no reason, check some of the cases with the Tsavo lions. That was probably why decided to kill it, it was a the verge of been a man-eater and it was necesary to destroy it. 

The lion Ximpoco and teh Kanha tiger, I don't think that are outliers, but just the normal maximum that they species can get, and althought they weighed over 280 kg, that is thanks to they meals and they weighed about 250 kg emtpy, large but not exceptional. Reply