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

<p>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.</p><p>^a Range includes a control specimen from DNHM weighing 6.3kg.</p><p>^b Range includes a control specimen from DNHM weighing 10.7kg</p><p>^c This specimen could not be ruled as being from a 13kg tiger.</p><p>^d Individual bags of skeletons were weighed, but the presence/absence of skulls was not noted.</p><p>^e The 510 skeletons were consolidated into 15 consignments (mean = 34 skeletons per consignment) totalling 4897kg.</p><p>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.</p><p>Mean mass of African Lion skeletons for individuals of varying sex, size, age and skeleton completeness (presence/absence of a skull).