Mean mass of African Lion skeletons for individuals of varying sex, size, age and skeleton completeness (presence/absence of a skull).

While samples exclude cubs, the presence of sub-adults cannot be ruled out. Since bones for the trade are mostly obtained from lions following a trophy hunt, the skeletons are presumed to be of mostly captive-origin.
a Range includes a control specimen from DNHM weighing 6.3kg.
b Range includes a control specimen from DNHM weighing 10.7kg
c This specimen could not be ruled as being from a 13kg tiger.
d Individual bags of skeletons were weighed, but the presence/absence of skulls was not noted.
e The 510 skeletons were consolidated into 15 consignments (mean = 34 skeletons per consignment) totalling 4897kg.
The overall mean mass per skeleton was obtained from the mean mass per skeleton per consignment. Consignments were not inspected and hence skeleton completeness is unknown.
Mean mass of African Lion skeletons for individuals of varying sex, size, age and skeleton completeness (presence/absence of a skull).