🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Lionesses in a pride synchronise births and raise cubs in a communal creche, and this study examined how milk is shared. Mothers nursed their own cubs preferentially but tolerated suckling by related…

Anne Pusey, Craig Packer · Behavioral Ecology · 1994

Using simulated intrusions, this study examined how lionesses behave when their pride must repel rivals. Individuals differed consistently: some females reliably led the advance toward broadcast roars…

Robert Heinsohn, Craig Packer · Science · 1995

Male lions hold tenure over prides in coalitions, and this study used genetic and behavioural data to show how coalition size and kinship shape reproductive sharing. Small coalitions were composed of…

Jon Grinnell, Craig Packer, Anne Pusey · Animal Behaviour · 1995

When new males take over a pride they often kill dependent cubs to bring females back into estrus, and this study analysed how females resist. Lionesses defend cubs collectively, sometimes at injury r…

Craig Packer, Anne Pusey · The American Naturalist · 1983

Drawing on decades of Serengeti tracking, this study mapped how pride size and territory location determine reproductive success. Larger prides won contests over prime real estate, particularly river…

Anna Mosser, Craig Packer · Animal Behaviour · 2009

This comparative study applied trait ratings to multiple felid species, including domestic cats, African lions, snow leopards, clouded leopards, and Scottish wildcats, to ask whether personality dimen…

Marieke Gartner, David Powell, Alexander Weiss · Journal of Comparative Psychology · 2014

Allonursing, the nursing of non-offspring, is best documented in lions but reported in other group-living or colonial felid contexts, including domestic cat colonies. This overview surveys research on…

Cognition has been studied far less in cats than in primates, birds, or dogs, but a coherent picture is emerging across the felid family. This overview synthesises research on object permanence, spati…

Felid species differ in their vocal repertoires, and comparative bioacoustics has sought to map these differences onto phylogeny and ecology. This overview surveys work cataloguing call types across s…

Cooperation is rare among felids, concentrated in the social lion and in cheetah and feral-cat male coalitions, making the family a useful contrast for theories of cooperation. This overview surveys r…

Lions are the most cooperative felid hunters, and research on Etosha and Serengeti prides has examined whether they coordinate roles during group hunts. This overview surveys evidence that some liones…

Lion cub survival is shaped by the communal creche, in which synchronously breeding females pool and defend their young. This overview surveys research on how creche formation buffers cubs against sta…

Captive big cats have become subjects of cognitive testing that reveals their learning abilities and informs enrichment. This overview surveys research using touchscreen and apparatus-based discrimina…

Although a pride is a stable social unit, its members are rarely all together; lions move in subgroups that split and merge in a fission-fusion pattern. This overview surveys research on how pride mem…

The lion's roar carries for kilometres and serves multiple social functions, from advertising territory ownership to locating and coordinating with pride mates. This overview surveys research on roari…

Lion roars carry information not only about presence but potentially about the identity and competitive ability of the caller. This overview surveys research on the acoustic structure of roars, the ba…

Infanticide is a central force in lion social evolution, occurring when incoming males kill the cubs of their predecessors to accelerate females' return to breeding condition. This overview surveys re…

Play is prominent in young big cats and persists in enriched captive settings, where it supports physical development and welfare. This overview surveys research on social and object play in lion, tig…

Numerical cognition has been studied extensively in birds and primates, and a smaller body of work asks whether cats discriminate quantities. This overview surveys experiments testing whether cats can…

Alongside roaring, lions use scent marking to advertise territory and reproductive status. This overview surveys research on lion olfactory communication, including urine spraying onto vegetation, scr…

Infanticide by males is documented or inferred across many felid species, from lions to tigers, leopards, pumas, and others, wherever killing dependent young can hasten a female's next conception. Thi…

The roar of a lion or tiger is among the loudest sounds a land mammal makes, and biomechanical research has sought to explain how such low, powerful sound is generated. This overview surveys findings…

Playback experiments on Serengeti lionesses tested whether females could judge the size of an intruding group from its roars. Researchers broadcast recordings of one versus three unfamiliar females an…

Karen McComb, Craig Packer, Anne Pusey · Animal Behaviour · 1994

Combining field observations with experiments using life-sized dummy lions, researchers tested what information a male's mane signals. Darker manes indicated higher testosterone and better nutrition,…

Peyton West, Craig Packer · Science · 2002

This foundational monograph reported years of direct observation of lion prides in the Serengeti, establishing baseline knowledge of pride structure, cooperative hunting, territorial behaviour, scaven…

George Schaller · 1972

Why can lions and tigers roar while domestic cats and cheetahs cannot? This comparative anatomical study examined the hyoid apparatus, the chain of bones supporting the larynx and tongue, across felid…

Gerald Weissengruber and colleagues · Journal of Anatomy · 2002

This influential analysis asked what selective pressures favour group living in lions, testing whether shared hunting and prey capture alone could explain sociality. Long-term Serengeti and Ngorongoro…

Craig Packer, David Scheel, Anne Pusey · The American Naturalist · 1990