Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor)

[GuateGojira]

(06-30-2015, 05:07 PM)'Majingilane' Wrote: And what about the weight, Guate? Was it correct?
 
 

I did not ask about the weight, because for me the answer is simple. From my point of view, the weight is reliable but it is inaccurate. Why?, well, check the belly.

In the moment of the capture, we can see that this is a very long male and looks massive and fat, maybe too fat, which suggest that it was gorged. Taking in count that any large cat can eat up to 1/5 of its body, the weight "empty" of this cat was probably c.90 kg, still a good record. Now, in the last pictures the leopard has lived over ten days with its back broken and probably had not eat in those days, so what we are seeing is a starving animal in a bad shape.

Other thing that disturb me are the canines. In the moment of the capture it had perfectly good canines, but at the moment with the vet, the canines are broken. What happened to him after its capture? Have you saw that? The animals survived with only three extremities but the shoot in its back and the time in captivity seems to have killed it.

So, I think that the weight of 115 kg is correct but includes stomach content, based in the picture. This same animal was emaciated at the moment when it was with the vet, and I suspect that this animal was weighed in the first capture and not in the last moment.

One case that I remember is the male tiger T-01 from Nagarahole, which weighed c.240 kg gorged, but it was in bad shape and died in less than a month. This tiger could die in less time but as the scientist that captured him treated its injures, the tiger lived slightly more but probably was unable to hunt and died from hungry.
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