Comparative growth of wild male and female lions (<i>Panthera leo</i>)

Abstract

Lion growth was studied by fitting sex specific Von Bertalanffy curves and linear regressions to data on body mass, heart girth, shoulder height and vertebral column length. Measurements were recorded for 344 lions ( Panthera leo ) (158 ♂♂ and 186 ♀♀), from Kruger National Park, South Africa. Growth in mass for males and females was linear up to about 36 months of age 0 = 0–98 and 0–99 respectively). The other age‐specific measurements were clearly curvilinear. Mean weights for adult lions (excluding stomach contents) were 187–5 kg (♂♂) and 124–2 kg (♀♀) respectively. Lions tended to continue growing up to about seven years in males and nine to 10 years in females after which they usually started to lose condition. Body mass and heart girth measurements of Kruger Park lions were compared with samples from three other populations. These showed that lions from East Africa were smaller than those from more southern populations in Rhodesia, Kalahari and Kruger Park.