Modern Weights and Measurements of Wild Lions

[epaiva]

(09-25-2019, 01:45 AM)GuateGojira Wrote: Lions from the Kalahari - body size:

I found a thesis from Dr Kevin MacFarlane about the lions in the northern region of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), the name of the thesis is: "The Ecology and Management of Kalahari lions in a Conflict Area in Central Botswana".

Is a good document, published in 2014, here is the link: https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu....885/102146

Now, this document focus in the lion population in the northern region of the Kalahari, an area know for its large lions and, guess what, it have body measurements. Check the table, furnished by me:

*This image is copyright of its original author

The original table is on page 219 (and a summary in page 100) but I also used the table in page 71 for the ID and names of that animals, so I found a somethings that are a little confusing. For example, sometimes they mention the lion "Corkwood" as MM105 and in others as MM106. The same happen with lioness "Steph" identified as SF009 or SF010; for this same female, the total length is showed as "249 cm", but the add of the head-body length (158 and 79) gives "237 cm", however I leave the original figure; in the case of males BM060 and MM106, I did corrected the total length figures. One last thing, there are two sets of measurements from female PF015 "Isolde", I guess that is the same female but the measurements are so diferent that it looks like a completelly different animal, so I put it separatelly.

These lions were measured also by the ALPRU method, but still, the body sizes are not abnormal as those from the Hobatore lions, supporting my claim that something is incorrect in the measurements of that other population.

Check the measurements and we can see that these are amoung the largest lions on records, in fact, they are heavier than those from South Africa. Please take in count that other lions were also captured, but some of them had only the neck girth measurements (which I don't included) and others do not have any measurement. So that table that I posted here is only with the animals measured and weighed.

This picture labeles as the male that weighed 222 kg, it seems that is incorrect, as this male is PM001 and according with the document, was not measured or weighed. 

*This image is copyright of its original author

Save the data, have a nice day!

@GuateGojira
Thanks for sharing very valuable information Kalahari Lions are really big Reply