AboutJonathan Wright Expertise I can answer questions about wild mammals, as well as other wild animals. I can also answer questions on extinct animals and zoos.
PLEASE DON'T SEND ME ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT PETS. IF YOU ARE REALLY WORRIED, YOU SHOULD CONTACT A VETERINARIAN. PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME THAT UNPAID PEOPLE ON ALLEXPERTS ARE AVAILABLE 24 HOURS A DAY AND WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH ADVICE THE MOMENT YOUR ANIMAL GETS ILL. Find out how to look after a pet before you get it. It is unfair to keep an animal in inappropriate conditions and give it the wrong food. If you can't keep an animal in good conditions, please don't bring it into your home. I'm not a vet and I don't have any expertise in animal medicine and care. I don't agree with people taking animals out of the wild and then expecting other people to give free advice on how to look after them. It is cruel to take animals away from their parents, who are able to look after the babies and may look for them, while putting their other babies at risk. You may need a licence to look after some animals. You may be breaking the law by keeping wild animals; please check with a local wildlife organisation.
IF YOU FIND AN INJURED ANIMAL, PLEASE CONTACT A WILDLIFE VETERINARIAN OR CHARITY AND LET TRAINED STAFF LOOK AFTER THE ANIMAL. DO NOT TRY TO LOOK AFTER AN INJURED ANIMAL IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
Please do not remove eggs from nests. The mother birds will know the right temperature for the eggs and will not sit on them if the temperature is warm enough for them to develop naturally. It is illegal to remove eggs of some species and, unless you have an incubator or a broody hen, the egg may not develop. If you are allowed to touch the eggs, you can candle them (check details on websites) to see if the eggs are fertile. If the eggs are not fertile, they will not hatch.
I do not agree with fights between different animals. Please do not ask me questions about them.
Experience I have a zoology degree and have been interested in animals since I was two years old. I am a zoo volunteer at London Zoo. I have appeared on a BBC Radio Quiz, 'Wildbrain'.
Organizations World Wide Fund for Nature. Zoological Society of London. London Bat Group.
Publications Newsletters of London Zoo volunteers and the London Bat Group
Education/Credentials BSC degree in Zoology. 'A' levels in Zoology and Chemistry. 'O' Level in Biology.
Question QUESTION: i`ve already posed this question to other experts, and i just would like to know your opinion in the matter.
most people say tigers are bigger than lions. is that true? because i doubt it. now, before you disagree, here me out:
lions are capable of amazing feats of strength. for example, a 416 lb lion can pull a carcass weighing 1000 lbs a distance of over 400 feet. that`s about a 60% difference in weight, so lions, as such, would need a muscle mass of about 60%. and this makes sense because with about 600 muscles in it`s body, higher percentages in muscle percentage is impossible at weights higher than 416 lbs, which i deduce must be a lions average weight. such a feat takes the strength of 10 men.
at 416 lbs, a lion has about 250 lbs of muscle. the average 150 lb man has about 40% of muscle. even though people have less than 1/10th the muscle mass of a lion, a lion`s muscles, at similar weights, are 40% stronger, due to their far hectic lifestyle.
recent reports from zoologists have found that a study of about 15 male siberians captured and released in the wild much smaller than previously thought, and not one tiger was found to weigh over 420 lbs.
lions, living in prides and having to protect the territory, are taller with big manes, as this aids in intimidation and helps to prevent a fight by conveying the message of being strong and powerful. even so, lions fight often, and 50% of all males die in fights with rivals. such fighting, over time, has made the lion a more aggressive animal.
tigers, living alone, have longer teeth and claws, an adaptation that suits a lone hunter. also, they have shorter legs. shorter legs produce more speed.
example: limbs, when moved, fall in a curve pattern. shorter limbs have a shorter curve and so takes less time to reach it`s mark. also, the receptors that send the command to move has less distance to travel before it reaches the brain. the shorter the distance traveled, the quicker your reaction. with their short limbs, tigers are capable of great speed and agility, and are, on average, 15% faster than lions.
tigers, with their shorter limbs, use up more energy quicker, so they tire easily. that`s one of the reasons they live in forests; it provides the perfect cover for a shorter chase.
also, here`s some info from zoos and documentaries; a lion named moran from “planet carnivore” was said to weigh 500 lbs. it was said on ‘explorer that a male siberian weighed 500lbs. on ‘awesome pawsome’ it was stated that tigers usually weigh about 500 lbs in zoos. from a zoo mentioned in a previous post had a siberian tiger that weighed 600 lbs, and was very fat looking. a lion, similarly, at another zoo, weighed 600 lbs. one of clyde beatty`s lions weighed 650 lbs. a fight between a lion and tiger was mentioned that stated the lion weighed 500 lbs while the tiger weighed 450 lbs.
peter jackson, a big cat expert, says the heaviest lion weighed 930 lbs, compared to 932 lbs from a siberian tiger named jaipur. he claims there`s no difference size wise.
also, it should be noted that the heaviest CONFIRMED nepalese bengal tiger weighed 227 kgs, while the largest tsavo lion weighed 272 kgs.
mazak, a big cat expert, claims that record of the 857 lb wild bengal tiger wasn`t confirmed, and isn`t reliable. however, the largest wild lion weighed 702 lbs.
also, author of the book "tiger in the snow" claims he knows of no wild tiger over 650 lbs, and that hunters weights of tigers claim in the past were mere estimates.
as you can see from my above statements, tigers are no bigger than lions. thanks for your time.
"
ANSWER: Dear Jimmy
Thanks for your question. I also wish to thank the authors of the websites I used.
I must admit that you've done a lot of research on this subject and I'm afraid that the problem lies in the word 'largest'. I have had several questions about the world's largest eagle and I have had problems determining whether I answer the question based on the average total height or length, head and body length or weight of the species or if I look at the largest ever individual and then I have to determine how to work out the largest species. In the end, it's a very controversial subject. When I was a little boy, my animal books stated that the largest living marsupial was the great grey kangaroo. Now most books state that it is the red kangaroo. I know that the grey kangaroo has been broken down into a few species, but why has the red kangaroo overtaken even the largest of these species? Unfortunately, the books don't mention this.
Back to your question, you need to determine how to measure tigers and lions. You should discount captives. Lions and tigers spend most of their time asleep and captives may use up little energy in their waking hours, so they can become very lethargic and overweight and unrepresentative of their species. You should only really include wild tigers and lions, but I suspect that few people have the courage (?) or the equipment to do this. You should also bear in mind that lions and tigers vary in size throughout their range.
I have looked up several websites and read many books and none of them say that the lion is the largest living species of cat. Once again, it depends on how you define the word ‘largest’, but until there is a consistent statement about the lion (in the same way as the red kangaroo listed above), I feel that the tiger is the largest species of wild cat. Please note that this could change with time, especially if the largest tigers get hunted out and the average size of lions becomes higher than that for tigers. The problem is that the population of African lions is also falling rapidly, although there are more individual wild lions than wild tigers.
Good luck with your campaign.
All the best
Jonathan
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: jonathan, thanks for your answers to my previous question.
even though most books state the tiger as being the largest, but i don`t think that`s neccessarily true. in the 'world book' encyclopedia, it says male tigers weigh an average of 420 lbs and then states them as the largest, even though it says lions weigh 350-400 lbs, and some up to 560 lbs. for both animals, it states them as 9 feet long on average.
also, it should be noted that even though tigers are capable of hunting larger prey than single lions, a tiger`s territory is usually larger, possibly due to fact that the prey in asia are usually more widely scattered than in africa, meaning that the tiger likely has to travel greater distances in search of food, further draining it`s relative low fat storage. that may also explain why tigers are more active than lions. after all, tigers are lone hunters and don`t have the luxury of another pride member to take care of dinner.
the point i`m trying to make is that even if the largest tigers outweigh the largest lions, this may in fact be by mere chance.
also, it should be noted that in a study done of more than 20 male siberians, not a single animal was found to weigh over 420 lbs.
also, it was mentioned on the discorvery channel that a tigers weight advantage over lions have often been highly exaggerated, then they go on to sate tigers only weigh 5 lbs more. how can they average 5 lbs morea/
Answer Dear Jimmy
Thanks for your follow-up question and for your kind comments.
The statement about the "World Book" encyclopedia gives a figure of 350-400 lb for lions - the average of this is 375 lb. The figure for tigers averages at 420 lb. This suggests that the tiger is larger on average. It is important to note that very few people weigh wild tigers or lions and these figures may not be very accurate. It takes some courage to tranquilise a tiger and weigh it before it wakes up. Captive specimens often weigh more than wild animals due to a lot of sleep and food and little exercise. I suspect that the average sizes of tigers and lions will change with time, as hunters prefer to kill larger specimens. But, at present, it seems that tigers are larger than lions, although this may change as tigers are becoming much scarcer in the wild.
