🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This experiment played recordings of one or three roaring strangers to prides and measured how resident females responded. Lionesses were more cautious when outnumbered and more likely to approach whe…

McComb, K., Packer, C., Pusey, A. E. · Animal Behaviour · 1994

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

This study examined the large domestic dog population living around the Serengeti to test whether dogs sustained the canine distemper virus that spilled into lions and other carnivores. Through serosu…

S. Cleaveland, M. G. J. Appel, W. S. K. Chalmers, et al. · Veterinary Microbiology · 2000

This comprehensive study screened thousands of samples from many felid species plus hyenas for feline immunodeficiency virus and sequenced isolates to map viral diversity. The authors confirmed that F…

J. L. Troyer, J. Pecon-Slattery, M. E. Roelke, et al. · Journal of Virology · 2005

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 early study documented how takeovers of prides by new male coalitions are followed by the death of dependent cubs, and how females then return to estrus and breed with the incoming males. By trac…

Bertram, B. C. R. · Journal of Zoology · 1975

This early field study examined how the social organization of lion prides governs which individuals breed and how successfully. The author related pride size, the tenure of resident male coalitions,…

Bertram BCR · Journal of Zoology · 1975

This influential review synthesized the global status of the largest carnivores, including big cats such as lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars, documenting widespread range contraction and populatio…

Ripple, W.J., Estes, J.A., Beschta, R.L., Wilmers, C.C., Ritchie, E.G., Hebblewhite, M., et al. · Science · 2014

The big cats of the genus Panthera proved historically difficult to resolve because of rapid speciation and conflicting gene trees. This study assembled a large multilocus supermatrix and applied both…

Brian W. Davis, Gang Li, William J. Murphy · Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution · 2010

Relationships among the big cats long resisted resolution because of short internal branches and conflicting markers. This study assembled a large multi-gene dataset and applied both concatenated supe…

Davis BW, Li G, Murphy WJ · Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution · 2010

This study built a high-resolution finite-element model of the skull of the sabertoothed cat Smilodon fatalis and compared its mechanical behaviour with that of a modern lion. The simulations indicate…

McHenry, C.R.; Wroe, S.; Clausen, P.D.; Moreno, K.; Cunningham, E. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2007

Kruuk documented and analyzed cases where carnivores kill far more prey than they can consume, challenging the assumption that predators only take what they need. Drawing on spotted hyena and other ca…

Kruuk, H. · Journal of Zoology · 1972

This study analyzed lion population structure and history using both the lions' own genetic markers and the genomes of feline immunodeficiency virus strains that infect them. By treating the virus as…

Agostinho Antunes, Stephen J. O'Brien, et al. · PLoS Genetics · 2008

This study combined genomes from modern lions across Africa and India with ancient DNA from extinct cave lions to reconstruct the deep history of the lion lineage. The authors estimated that cave lion…

Marc de Manuel, Ross Barnett, Tomas Marques-Bonet, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020

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

Patterson's book synthesises field biology, museum forensics, and historical records surrounding the 1898 Tsavo man-eating lions that halted railway construction over the Tsavo River. It examines comp…

Bruce D. Patterson · 2004

Schaller's monograph is the foundational field study of lion ecology and one of the most thorough predator-prey investigations ever conducted. Over years in the Serengeti, he documented lion social st…

Schaller, G.B. · University of Chicago Press · 1972

This monograph is a foundational field study of lion biology based on years of direct observation in the Serengeti ecosystem. While famous for its analysis of predation, it also provides detailed acco…

Schaller GB · University of Chicago Press · 1972

George Schaller spent three years observing lions on the Serengeti plains and woodlands, producing the first comprehensive natural history of the species. By following recognizable individuals he docu…

Schaller, G. B. · University of Chicago Press · 1972

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

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

This study produced the first reference genome of the tiger, sequenced from an Amur tiger, and compared it with newly generated lion and snow leopard genome data. The authors identified genetic signat…

Yun Sung Cho, Jong Bhak, et al. · Nature Communications · 2013

This influential synthesis explored why carnivores vary so much in sociality, from solitary cats to group-living species, linking social organization to the distribution of food in space and time. It…

Macdonald, D. W. · Nature · 1983

Drawing on long-term Serengeti records, this study analyzed why male lions disperse from their natal pride while females usually remain, producing the strongly female-philopatric, male-dispersing patt…

Pusey AE, Packer C · Behaviour · 1987

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

Periquet, Fritz and Revilla reviewed the full breadth of interactions between lions and spotted hyenas, the two dominant large carnivores of African savannas. They synthesized evidence on kleptoparasi…

Periquet, S., Fritz, H. & Revilla, E. · Biological Reviews · 2015

Prugh and colleagues synthesized global evidence that the worldwide decline of apex predators has triggered widespread increases in mid-sized carnivores, with far-reaching ecological and economic cons…

Prugh, L.R., Stoner, C.J., Epps, C.W., Bean, W.T. et al. · BioScience · 2009

Kerbis Peterhans and Gnoske compiled historical, ecological, and anatomical evidence to reconstruct the natural history of man-eating in lions, focusing on the Tsavo case. They reviewed records of lio…

Julian C. Kerbis Peterhans, Thomas P. Gnoske · Journal of East African Natural History · 2001

This study produced the first reference genome for the tiger and compared it with newly sequenced lion and snow leopard genomes to investigate big cat evolution and adaptation. The authors identified…

Cho YS, Hu L, Hou H, et al. · Nature Communications · 2013

Hunter, Durant and Caro examined the decisions cheetahs make at carcasses when dominant competitors threaten, quantifying how the presence of lions and hyenas governs whether and when cheetahs abandon…

Hunter, J.S., Durant, S.M. & Caro, T.M. · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · 2007