LION AND TIGER LUNG AND HEART SIZE
Source: Intelligence, power, and personality, by George Washington Crile
Source: A RECORD OF THE BODY WEIGHT AND CERTAIN
ORGAN AND GLAND WEIGHTS OF 3690 ANIMALS
GEORGE CRILE, M. D. (pdf document)
Source: Brief description of the cardiac anatomy in a tiger
(Panthera tigris, Linnaeus, 1758): a case report
W. Perez, M. Lima (pdf document)
Source: Mammals of the soviet union, Vladistav Mazak
Source: Philip L. Altman, Dorothy Dittmer Katz, Rudolph M. Grebe, 1958, "Handbook of respiration", Page 22-23
Source mentioned here:
RED BLOOD CELL COUNT;
(Source at the top)
Source: Nemi Chand Jain, 1993, "Essentials of veterinary Hematology", Page 59-60
Source:
www.molekularesystematik.uni-oldenburg.de/download/Publications/OBEdissertation.pdfQueen Elizabeth National Park
Source:
etd.uovs.ac.za/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-09062010-120804/unrestricted/ErasmusHL.pdfNow a study for the tiger, one that seems to indicate a rather high value on the first view...:
But only on the first view. It's from here:
www.zoosprint.org/ZooPrintJournal/2006/July/2321.pdf. Look at this: "The average PCV value was 52.12, which is much above the normal values, and this is further attributed to the feeding pattern and dehydration, in similar lines with Hb concentration." And indeed that's true. Pcv is the hematocrit, which is the percentage of red blood cells in the blood. Usual values are 37-39%, but more than 52% - that's completely abnormal. Reasons were described. Actually that's comparable with a 250 kg tiger with 60 kg fat. Subtract about 37% of the 52.12% and you got 38% and an RBC of 6.4 which seems to be a normal value for tigers, according to the other studies.
Source: Haematological and biochemical studies in tigers (Panthera tigris tigris)
[I excluded a study on Barbary lions as they don't exist in the wild any more. The RBC count was 10.14 but they also got exceptional Hct values, so after "correcting" that they got a value of 8.31.)
As far as I've seen it's possible here to use regression analysis to get the averages for average lions and tigers (correct me if I'm wrong, please!). This was also the first time I used that method for biological issues, so if someone sees flaws in my calculations, tell me, please, and I'll correct it!
X is body weight while Y is heart/lung weight. I came to the following equations - on lion heart size: Y=-2000.076+611.00367*ln X (For X I took 183.6kg to get the heart size for average lions - as far as I know that's the average of [nearly]all populations together. If this is an antiquated average, just tell me and I'll change it). The result I got with this equation is that the lion's heart would weigh 1184.939g on average.
For lung size I calculated the following formula: Y=174.4153+454.0276*ln X. X is again 183.6kg. So the average weight of an average lion's lungs would be 2541.152g.
I also did the same for tigers, though I have to admit that the data is very limited and I had to mix siberian tiger and bengal tiger. So, the results are uncertain... However, here's the formulas I calculated - on tiger heart size: Y=10837.6246-1897.9759*ln X. X is 200 kg in this case, as this is nearly exactly the average weight of all bengal tiger populations together. The result was that the average tiger would have a heart weighing 781.5509g.
For lung size I calculated the following formula: Y=4296.833-476.548*ln X. The result was that on average a tiger would have lungs weighing 1771.930g.
I used the following data for lions (Body weight/lung weight/ heart weight): (161.52kg/1614g/2600g), (117.37kg/713g/-), (94.86kg/743.2g/1580g), (126.08kg/1078g/3838g), (195.4kg/1175g/2000g), (186.36kg/860g/2600g), (128.2kg/-/2090g), (109.319kg/859g/2188g) and for tigers: (209kg/1888g/698g), (-/-/940g), (170kg/2070g/1090g) and (184kg/1454g/-).
When comparing heart and lung weights of lions and tigers (I took the averages I got from my formulas) I got the following: The lion has a 51.61% bigger heart and 43.41% bigger lungs.
All of the findings of the articles above belong to Leofwin, Boldchamp and Schamah.
CONCLUSION
Lions have proportionally very large lung size and heart size. They are have a high count of RBC. Lions have excellent stamina by feline standards. Tigers are faster and more explosive, but have less endurance.
This would make sense, actually, given that plain animals usually need more stamina, while forest animals rely more on stealth, ambush, and quick, explosive kills.