Comparing Cats: A Discussion of Similarities & Differences

[Polar]

(09-24-2017, 01:26 PM)Spalea Wrote: @Polar :

About #58: quite agree with you ! And, anyway, the difference must be quite small.

Nevertheless I am a little bit surprised when you say that both male lions and tigers would run faster than the females. Yes, males are stronger, but being stronger implies to be heavier, so an handicap for running. And when I see some photos of lionesses and tigresses that are almost "gracile" in comparaison, I would have think they run the fastest.

Because, in the human society we speak about "strong sex" and "weak sex" in terms of physical performances, that isn't male chauvinism to state that. But as concerns the wild life, the mammals among wild animals, I seriously think that the females have other assets. And in terms of physical performances, OK males are the strongest, but the females doesn't make up the "weak sex". I wouldn't be surprised to see that they are generally faster.

Lionesses and tigresses might seem faster than their male counterparts, but that is because they look more skinnier and less bulkier: we have this natural pre-conception to state that skinnier and smaller animals run faster than larger animals because greater speed is associated with lower weight in our eyes (the bear is a contradiction to this idea). The female counterparts are definitely more flexible back-wise, I'll give you that, just like human females are more flexible than human males when it comes to the hipbone.

There also comes a part where a more flexible running gait can make a big cat faster (such as tiger having a more flexible gait than lion, and thus running faster), but compared with natural muscular/neuro-muscular advantages these differences are nullified in preference of the muscular advantages in males. Male lions, although heavier, also have more muscle mass per body mass and increased neuro-muscular advantages as a result of testosterone, and that gives them a greater turbo than the females.

However, the difference in flexibility is not as significant as the difference in strength/speed/agility/endurance/reflexes between males and females: with the males having a very clear advantage in the latter and females in the former. Male big cats are incredibly flexible as well. So it would be safe to say that there is a "strong" and a "weaker" sex in terms of physicality in the animal world too. Reply