🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This study documented a devastating outbreak of canine distemper virus that killed a large fraction of the lions in the Serengeti ecosystem, demonstrating that infectious disease can cause sudden mass…

Roelke-Parker ME, Munson L, Packer C, et al. · Nature · 1996

This analysis compared the performance and economics of fenced versus unfenced lion reserves across Africa. The authors found that fenced reserves maintained lion populations much closer to their pote…

Packer C, Loveridge A, Canney S, et al. · Ecology Letters · 2013

This continental assessment combined population data from across Africa to show that lion numbers have fallen sharply in most regions, with West, Central, and East African populations in steep decline…

Bauer H, Chapron G, Nowell K, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2015

Counting lions reliably is surprisingly difficult, and methodological choices strongly affect the numbers that drive conservation decisions. This overview surveys techniques used to estimate lion abun…

Lions once ranged across Africa, southeast Europe, the Middle East, and into India, but have lost the overwhelming majority of that historical distribution. This overview surveys research reconstructi…

Genetic studies have reshaped understanding of how lions are organized across their range, revealing deeper structure than the traditional African-Asiatic split implies. This overview surveys research…

South Africa has reintroduced lions into numerous fenced reserves where they had been extirpated, creating a network of small, intensively managed populations. This overview surveys research on these…

Conservation strategy for lions increasingly centers on the concept of strongholds, large protected landscapes that hold robust, well-connected lion populations capable of long-term persistence. This…

Retaliatory and preemptive killing of lions by pastoralists protecting livestock is a leading cause of lion decline outside core protected areas. This overview surveys research on the drivers of depre…

One of the longest-running studies of any wild big cat, the decades-long monitoring of lions in the Serengeti ecosystem has produced foundational knowledge of lion biology and conservation. This overv…

Reinforcing the enclosures, or bomas, where livestock are kept at night is among the most direct ways to reduce predation by lions, leopards, and other cats, and thereby retaliatory killing. This over…

The Asiatic lion, once spread across southwest Asia, survives as a single wild population in and around the Gir forest of Gujarat, India, recovered from a few dozen animals a century ago to several hu…

The Lion Guardians model, developed in Maasai lands of East Africa, employs young men from local communities, often former lion hunters, to monitor lions, warn herders, reinforce enclosures, and reduc…

Growing demand for lion bones, partly as a substitute for tiger parts in traditional medicine markets, has raised concern about new pressures on wild lions. This overview surveys research and policy a…

South Africa's legal export of lion skeletons, drawn largely from its captive lion industry, created a regulated trade in lion bones destined for Asian markets, and with it a controversial conservatio…

Trophy hunting of lions is among the most contentious topics in carnivore conservation, and this overview surveys the science behind the debate. Research has examined how hunting older males can be su…

This regional survey systematically searched protected areas across West Africa to determine where lions still survived, and found the situation far worse than expected. Lions had vanished from most o…

Henschel P, Coad L, Burton C, et al. · PLoS ONE · 2014

This study used satellite imagery and human population data to map how much of Africa's savannah remains suitable for lions, viewing the continent through the needs of a wide-ranging predator. The aut…

Riggio J, Jacobson A, Dollar L, et al. · Biodiversity and Conservation · 2013