🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

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

Sherwen and Hemsworth reviewed and reframed the visitor effect, drawing on human-animal interaction science from farm animals to argue that visitors are a salient and often underestimated feature of t…

Sherwen SL, Hemsworth PH · Animals · 2019

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

Bashaw, Bloomsmith, Maple and Bercovitch tested whether feeding-based enrichment changes behaviour in tigers and lions, comparing a hung carcass-like 'fishing' device and bones against standard feedin…

Bashaw MJ, Bloomsmith MA, Maple TL, Bercovitch FB · Zoo Biology · 2003

Treves and Bruskotter examined the psychology and policy of human tolerance for large predators, arguing that tolerance, the willingness to coexist with carnivores, is the decisive factor in their con…

Adrian Treves, Jeremy T. Bruskotter · Science · 2014

This study examined the long-standing hypothesis that dental injury drives big cats to hunt humans and livestock, using the Tsavo and Mfuwe man-eating lion specimens. The authors documented severe too…

Bruce D. Patterson, Ellis J. Neiburger, Samuel M. Kasiki · Journal of Mammalogy · 2003

Westlund argued that positive-reinforcement training should be viewed as a form of environmental enrichment in its own right, not merely a husbandry convenience. She described how training sessions pr…

Westlund K · Journal of Veterinary Behavior · 2014

This influential synthesis argued that the loss of large apex consumers, including big cats and other top predators, is among humanity's most pervasive impacts on nature. Drawing on examples across ec…

Estes, J. A., Terborgh, J., Brashares, J. S., et al. · Science · 2011

Estes and a large group of coauthors synthesized evidence that the loss of apex consumers, including big cats, is among humanity's most pervasive influences on nature. The review marshaled cases acros…

Estes, J.A., Terborgh, J., Brashares, J.S. et al. · Science · 2011

Drawing on long-term study of individually known Serengeti and Ngorongoro lions, this paper characterized exposure to a suite of pathogens including canine distemper virus, feline immunodeficiency vir…

C. Packer, S. Altizer, M. Appel, et al. · Journal of Animal Ecology · 1999

Miller investigated how zoo visitors interpret stereotypic pacing, showing them footage of an animal pacing versus behaving normally and surveying their reactions. Visitors who saw pacing rated the an…

Miller LJ · Zoo Biology · 2012

Davey reviewed the evidence on how the presence, number and behaviour of visitors affect captive zoo animals. He found that visitors can act as a source of stress, enrichment or both depending on spec…

Davey G · Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science · 2007

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

Testing the long-held idea that lions live in groups to hunt large prey more efficiently, this study compared the per-capita food intake of females in groups of different sizes. The data showed that s…

Packer, C., Scheel, D., Pusey, A. E. · The American Naturalist · 1990

Hediger, often called the father of zoo biology, wrote this seminal book establishing that captive animals have psychological as well as physical needs. He introduced concepts such as flight distance,…

Hediger H · Butterworths Scientific Publications · 1950

Sunquist and Sunquist's comprehensive reference compiles the natural history, ecology and behavior of all wild felid species, with extensive treatment of diet, prey selection, hunting modes and predat…

Sunquist, M. & Sunquist, F. · University of Chicago Press · 2002