🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Margulis, Hoyos and Anderson examined the relationship between how active captive cats are and how long visitors watch them. Observing several felid species, they found that visitor interest, measured…

Margulis SW, Hoyos C, Anderson M · Zoo Biology · 2003

Lesilau and colleagues conducted a field experiment around Nairobi National Park, Kenya, testing whether installing flashing LED lights on bomas reduced lion attacks on livestock. Comparing depredatio…

Francis Lesilau, et al. · PLOS ONE · 2018

Hazzah and colleagues evaluated whether a Maasai-warrior employment scheme (Lion Guardians) and a livestock compensation program reduced lion killing in southern Kenya. Using long-term lion-mortality…

Leela Hazzah, Stephanie Dolrenry, et al. · Conservation Biology · 2014

This influential review synthesized how emerging infectious diseases threaten wildlife, including charismatic carnivores, and intersect with human and domestic-animal health. The authors framed diseas…

P. Daszak, A. A. Cunningham, A. D. Hyatt · Science · 2000

This study examined lion population history using both the lions' own genetic markers and the genetic signatures of their viruses, an innovative dual approach. By analyzing host DNA alongside feline i…

Antunes A, Troyer JL, Roelke ME, et al. · PLoS Genetics · 2008

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

Van Orsdol provided detailed measurements of lion hunting success in Uganda, relating capture rates to prey species, group size, habitat cover and time of day. He found that success was higher at nigh…

Van Orsdol, K.G. · African Journal of Ecology · 1984

This study documented the first confirmed natural SARS-CoV-2 infections in big cats, occurring in tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo early in the COVID-19 pandemic. After several cats developed respira…

D. McAloose, M. Laverack, L. Wang, et al. · mBio · 2020

This study focused on the poorly sampled lions of West and Central Africa and found them genetically distinct from East and Southern African lions, instead allied with the Asiatic lion. By analyzing m…

Bertola LD, van Hooft WF, Vrieling K, et al. · Journal of Biogeography · 2011

This study analyzed genomes across the genus Panthera and found pervasive evidence of ancient gene flow among the big-cat lineages, demonstrating that their evolution was reticulate rather than strict…

Henrique V. Figueiro, Eduardo Eizirik, et al. · Science Advances · 2017

This genomic study sequenced multiple Panthera species and found pervasive evidence that gene flow between lineages, not just simple branching, shaped big cat evolution. The authors detected introgres…

Figueiro HV, Li G, Trindade FJ, et al. · Science Advances · 2017

Scheel and Packer analyzed Serengeti lion hunts to test whether group hunting reflects true cooperation or individuals each maximizing their own success. They found that hunting success increased with…

Scheel, D. & Packer, C. · Animal Behaviour · 1991

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

Drawing on decades of Serengeti pride records and GPS data, this study quantified how the number of adult females in a pride affects its ability to win contested ground and raise cubs. Larger prides d…

Mosser, A., Packer, C. · Animal Behaviour · 2009

Treves and Karanth reviewed human-carnivore conflict and management approaches across continents, synthesising how societies have responded to large predators from persecution to protection. They exam…

Adrian Treves, K. Ullas Karanth · Conservation Biology · 2003

Inskip and Zimmermann produced a comprehensive global review of conflict between people and wild cats, synthesising the geography, drivers, and severity of conflict across all felid species. They iden…

Chloe Inskip, Alexandra Zimmermann · Oryx · 2009

Funston, Mills and Biggs challenged the stereotype that male lions are merely scavengers reliant on females' kills. Working in Kruger National Park, they showed that male lions hunt effectively, parti…

Funston, P.J., Mills, M.G.L. & Biggs, H.C. · Journal of Zoology · 2001

McPhee tested whether feeding whole, intact carcasses rather than processed meat changes the behaviour of large captive cats. Providing carcasses increased feeding-related and active behaviours and al…

McPhee ME · Zoo Biology · 2002

Palomares and Caro compiled and analyzed the global record of carnivores killing other carnivores, establishing intraguild predation as a widespread structuring force. They showed that interspecific k…

Palomares, F. & Caro, T.M. · The American Naturalist · 1999

Radloff and Du Toit analyzed the southern African large-carnivore guild to show that a predator's body mass sets both the average and the upper limit of the prey sizes it takes. Larger predators such…

Radloff, F.G.T. & Du Toit, J.T. · Journal of Animal Ecology · 2004

Woodroffe and Frank examined how retaliatory and preemptive killing of lions on Kenyan rangelands affects populations at local and regional scales. Combining mortality records with spatial analysis ar…

Rosie Woodroffe, Laurence G. Frank · Animal Conservation · 2005

Creel and Creel demonstrated that African wild dog populations are limited not by prey scarcity but by competition with lions and spotted hyenas, which kill dogs and steal their kills. Analyzing demog…

Creel, S. & Creel, N.M. · Conservation Biology · 1996

Ogada and colleagues conducted a controlled comparison of husbandry practices on Laikipia ranches in Kenya to identify which measures reduce predation by lions, leopards, hyenas, and cheetahs. By corr…

Maurice O. Ogada, Rosie Woodroffe, Nicholas O. Oguge, Laurence G. Frank · Conservation Biology · 2003

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

Packer and colleagues analysed more than 800 lion attacks on people across rural Tanzania between 1990 and 2004, one of the largest quantitative datasets on big-cat predation on humans. They found att…

Craig Packer, Dennis Ikanda, Bernard Kissui, Hadas Kushnir · Nature · 2005

Hazzah, Borgerhoff Mulder, and Frank investigated the social and economic drivers of lion killing among Maasai communities near Amboseli, Kenya, and assessed an incentive-based compensation scheme. Th…

Leela Hazzah, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Laurence Frank · Biological Conservation · 2009

Kissui quantified livestock losses to lions, leopards, and spotted hyenas across Maasai households in northern Tanzania and linked those losses to retaliatory killing of carnivores. Using household su…

Bernard M. Kissui · Animal Conservation · 2008

In this follow-up, Durant used experimental playbacks and detailed observation to show that Serengeti cheetahs actively avoid lions and spotted hyenas at fine spatial and temporal scales, moving away…

Durant, S.M. · Behavioral Ecology · 2000

This comparative study examined taste-receptor genes across a range of carnivorous mammals and found widespread loss of taste capabilities tied to diet. Building on the earlier discovery that cats lac…

Peihua Jiang, Jesusa Josue, Xia Li, et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2012

This landmark analysis showed that the size of a male lion coalition strongly predicts its tenure over prides and its lifetime reproductive output. Larger coalitions, often formed by littermates or co…

Bygott, J. D., Bertram, B. C. R., Hanby, J. P. · Nature · 1979