Who is the "king" of tigers? - Bengal or Amur

[GuateGojira]

For those that love the comparative images, and want to see also the "largest sizes", here is the one about the "the largest tiger" sizes recorded, check it out:

*This image is copyright of its original author

To be sincere, there is not too much difference between the animals, just some 13 cm longer and 8 cm taller in the hunting records, although in the image, the difference is evident. In the skull department there is also few difference (less than 3 cm).

Mayor differences are in the chest girth (20 cm) and in the body mass (30 kg). How do I obtain the weight of 290 kg? Simple, Smythies vouched the giant male of 320 kg, however it is widely know that in Nepal, most hunts were with baits (it was the standard method) so the tiger was surely baited. Dr McDougal recorded one exceptional instance of a huge male eating up to 35 kg, meanwhile Dr Sunquist based in several samples, found that the maximum food intake was of c.19 kg (18.6 kg to be exact). So, if we exclude those quantities for the record, we get this:

320 - 35 = 285
320 - 19 = 301   * average of the two = 293 kg

In this form, I calculated an empty belly weight of c.290 kg for that huge male, assuming a food intake of c.30 kg, for such a huge specimen.

Interestingly, most of the figures came from the Bengal tigers, except for the modern records. Here is the full explanation of the image:

1. Scientific records:
The total length came from a male tiger captured in Nagarahole (311 cm), while the longest Amur tiger captured was of 309 cm. The head-body of 208 cm came from that longest Amur male, as the longest Bengal specimen from Nagarahole had a head-body of 204 cm; interestingly we can see that the Bengal had a longer tail, in this case.

There are no records of shoulder heights in modern Bengal tigers, so I use the record for the Amur one (106 cm). The chest girth is from Sauraha, but is possible that other males, like Madla, could have a larger chest girth. The skull sizes are from Bengal tigers, just like the record of weight.

2. Reliable hunting records:
The total length came from the giant Amur tiger quoted by Mazák, however, we can't forget that the largest male from Brander (221 cm head-body) had a very short tail of less than 90 cm. If that tiger would have a tail just like the Sauraha male (113 cm), the total length, between pegs, would be of 334 cm! So, the figure of 330 cm is completely plausible for Bengal tigers too.

All the other dimensions came from Bengal tigers, except for the skull wide, which came from the Manchurian giant skull. The widest skull for a Bengal tiger was of 283 cm.

Hope you like, you can save it. If you have doubts, you can ask in any time.

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