Modern Weights and Measurements of Wild Lions

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(10-19-2020, 08:42 PM)Khan85 Wrote: Also, I recently read about these two "mamuding lions" who killed 244 cattle in one year and weighed 800lbs and 700lbs 



Funny thing is I haven't seen any reliable piece of info about these lions, no pics, any documents how they were weighed, any regard of food content, any records nothing. Even Guinness recognises the 313kgs lion as the biggest one from the wild and he can be observed in many documents and books. Nothing mentions of these two lions. 

Are these real or just gross exaggerations?

There are many exaggerated weights from past, "good old days" so to say. Guinness really can´t be considered as reliable source what comes to old information concerning animal measurements and weights, they accepted too vague information without checking things properly in past. When I was child there was for instance told, that Great white sharks could be 12 meters long. They have accepted tiger and lion weights which aren´t considered valid in scientific research. When looking closer sources and information behind those "records" it´s easy to see why not valid to use in science as reliable, but alleged. Then again they are slow to change what they have once printed, but they do it step by step when they have to.

One other good example is, that they accepted a case in which was claimed, that Japanese soldiers tried to cross some jungle/swamp etc. area with a lot of crocodiles during WWII. Claim was, that crocodiles would have killed hundres of armed soldiers and it would have been most people killed by crocodiles ever. They admitted only quite recently, that it´s something that most likely never happened. Crocodiles ate some soldiers killed in battles, but they didn´t kill those soldiers. So they in first step only partially admitted, that they had printed in their Book of Records rumors. Even though there is no evidence whatsoever that it would have happened. And while there is evidence about battle in same area same time in which group of Japanese soldiers were killed and crocodiles there afterwards.

So my advice is to not take Guinness too seriously what comes to many old "records".

Maybe only valid big cat (hybrids excluded) over 700 lbs ever been in Book of Records has been captive tiger Jaipur, then again when seeing his photo it´s easy to see why. Not something what could ever be seen in wild. Sadly in captivity there have been many other obese animals too. So yes, some other captive lions and tigers might have been there too, I haven´t checked in long time what they tell there.

700 lbs lion if fit, should be huge in every way. I don´t think that there are such lions really. Or if, then maybe once in a lifetime, when looking at average/normal lions. But I´ve never seen any reliable source for such lion in wild. Some captive and obese lions have been told to be 700-800 lbs, which I don´t find impossible, they are big animals and it´s possible to overfeed them as many examples show. Reply