How to determine the gender of mammals from appearance or behaviour

[Klipspringer]

1
This is a difficult one, because it is obviously a subadult, but looking at the not broad head, I would go for a female


3
Is an adult older female, looks large but the head looks smaller than the neck.
Looking at the belly she is having a cub?


4
Is the easiest for me, a female, neck not strongly developed


5
has a large head and a thick neck visible even in the frontal shot, adult male


7
is that difficult angle, but I would go for female - head rather small and neck also small


No 6 and no 2 I know, so no fun in speculating


It's all guesswork, I am certain only for 4 and 5

[nan]

1. female

2. youngster

3. female

4. female

5. male

6. male

7. female

[Mel]

3. Male. Very muscular
2. Female. Small head

I'm glad that at least someone fell for it... It's actually the other way around. no. 2 is a young male and no. 3 is Safran

2. youngster

That would be correct, but not the answer we're looking for
But otherwise you got them all right.

Klippie really nailed it with her explanations too.
No. 3 had had a cub, but the one she had with her on that particular occasion was at least a year old.

[Flutterby]

Very unscientific but I think female leopards have prettier faces!

[Lisbeth]

That's exactly what I said at the beginning of this "thing"

[Flutterby]

[nan]

That would be correct, but not the answer we're looking for
But otherwise you got them all right.

what do you want... the names
but me I need the name of the # 2, the "youngster"

[Klipspringer]

I think, we move on to Flutterby's next animal on her wishlist:

Cheetah

There are two stronghold populations left in the world: one in Southern Africa (Namibia, Botswana and South Africa), and the other in Kenya and
Tanzania, represented by different subspecies. Therefore it is very possible that research conducted in East Africa reveals behavioural differences not applicable to the Southern populations.

Anyway, there is no other morphological sexual dimorphism than size, males being larger. But the difference is not a big deal and there is significant overlap (there are a significant number of females being larger than males), so this does not help for field observations.

Cheetah morphometric data.jpg (78.95 KiB) Viewed 698 times

https://cheetah.org/resource-library/mo ... e-cheetah/


Mothers abandon their offspring before the youg gain adult size, so it's usually easy to tell if a group is a female with cubs (unless they are very flat and far off )

Cheetah adult size.jpg (31.38 KiB) Viewed 691 times

[Klipspringer]

Cheetah: Social Organization

Cheetah cubs remain with their mother until they are about 18 month old.

From the Mara-Meru Cheetah Project: Cheetah Coalitions
After the mother leaves her sub-adult cubs, siblings stay together for several months. Once they reach sexual maturity, females and males separate.
Most females live a solitary life, but in certain environmental conditions, they also form coalitions from sisters-littermates.
Depending on the number of males, they start solitary life or group life in a permanent unit – a coalition, which lasts life-long and may accept unrelated males.
If a cheetah coalition consists of brothers (littermates), members have equal position in the group and share duties. In a mixed coalition, there is a clear hierarchy with leadership and more dominance behaviour.
Sometimes, males in a coalition compete for a female in estrus, and the one that dominates gets the opportunity to mate.
A study in the Serengeti National Park revealed that multiple paternities occurred in 43 per cent of the litters.
Some coalitions in the Mara avoid competition for females. One member of the Oloololo Brothers disappeared with a female for three days. The next time, the other male mated with different female. Sopa Males took turns with the same female, while the other coalition member rested and hunted four kilometres away.
http://marameru.org/wp-content/uploads/ ... angers.pdf

[Klipspringer]

Watch out for marking behavior - male (singles or in coaltions) who are floaters don't mark their territory. Non-resident males rarely scent-mark.
Cheetah females seldom jet-urinate, but they spray-urinate frequently.


Fom Namibia: Male territory holders and floaters
Cheetahs in Namibia exhibited a similar ranging pattern as described for cheetahs in the Serengeti, Tanzania.
Males displayed two spatial tactics with territory holders marking and defending a small area and floaters roaming over large areas. All but one individuals observed to switch their spatial tactic were floaters which became territory holders, with the exception of one male which set out as floater, switched repeatedly between tactics and ended by being a territory holder.
Thus, the Namibian males start out as floaters and aim to become territory holders, suggesting that territories are likely to contain valuable resources. Floaters were successful in taking over a territory when their coalition size was larger than that of territory holders.
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley ... /ecs2.2308

Cheetah males display two spatial tactics: floaters roam over vast areas whereas territory holders mark and defend small areas. Females use home ranges with sizes between those of territory holders and floaters.