Craig Packer
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View article: Human-driven landscapes of fear for Africa's largest terrestrial predator in human-used conservation landscapes
Human-driven landscapes of fear for Africa's largest terrestrial predator in human-used conservation landscapes Open
View article: Fission‐Fusion Group Dynamics and Cooperative Hunting Stabilise Social Carnivore Populations
Fission‐Fusion Group Dynamics and Cooperative Hunting Stabilise Social Carnivore Populations Open
Theory suggests that large social groups of carnivores should be unsustainable, due to reduced foraging efficiency because of overlapping perception radii. Using Serengeti lions as a case study, we apply behaviourally based foraging models…
View article: Density-dependent network structuring within and across wild animal systems
Density-dependent network structuring within and across wild animal systems Open
View article: Oxytocin reduces asymmetries in dominance relationships between pairs of captive female lions
Oxytocin reduces asymmetries in dominance relationships between pairs of captive female lions Open
Free-ranging female African lions maintain symmetrical social relationships by respecting each other's "ownership" of valuable food items rather than by supplanting subordinates according to well-defined dominance hierarchies. However, cap…
View article: Short-term study fails to capture negative impacts of livestock intensification on wildlife
Short-term study fails to capture negative impacts of livestock intensification on wildlife Open
View article: Constraints to gene flow increase the risk of genome erosion in the Ngorongoro Crater lion population
Constraints to gene flow increase the risk of genome erosion in the Ngorongoro Crater lion population Open
Small, isolated populations are at greater risk of genome erosion than larger populations. Successful conservation efforts may lead to demographic recovery and mitigate the negative genetic effects of bottlenecks. However, constrained gene…
View article: President Roosevelt’s lions reveal a century of population fragmentation in Africa’s largest carnivore
President Roosevelt’s lions reveal a century of population fragmentation in Africa’s largest carnivore Open
Over the past century, lion ( Panthera leo ) populations across Africa have experienced rapid and severe declines. Despite this, East Africa is considered a modern-day lion stronghold. Here, we use whole-genome sequencing of both recent an…
View article: The benefits of inclusive conservation for connectivity of lions across the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania
The benefits of inclusive conservation for connectivity of lions across the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania Open
Human impacts on the planet degrade natural habitats, often restricting wildlife to protected areas. If connectivity between such areas is lost, wildlife populations may lose genetic diversity, thereby increasing extinction risk. For large…
View article: Sex-specific social aging in wild African lions
Sex-specific social aging in wild African lions Open
There is a growing interest in social behavior change with age,1,2,3,4,5 and the impacts of sociality on longevity,6,<…
View article: Multifaceted density dependence: Social structure and seasonality effects on Serengeti lion demography
Multifaceted density dependence: Social structure and seasonality effects on Serengeti lion demography Open
Interactions between density and environmental conditions have important effects on vital rates and consequently on population dynamics and can take complex pathways in species whose demography is strongly influenced by social context, suc…
View article: Traditional beliefs prolong outbreaks of man-eating lions
Traditional beliefs prolong outbreaks of man-eating lions Open
From the 1800s to the 1950s, “spirit lions” and “spirit leopards” were blamed for countless deaths across Africa that were in fact caused by a combination of genuine carnivore attacks and murders instigated by witch doctors and secret soci…
View article: Interplay of competition and facilitation in grazing succession by migrant Serengeti herbivores
Interplay of competition and facilitation in grazing succession by migrant Serengeti herbivores Open
Competition, facilitation, and predation offer alternative explanations for successional patterns of migratory herbivores. However, these interactions are difficult to measure, leaving uncertainty about the mechanisms underlying body-size-…
View article: First systematic population survey of the desert‐adapted lions, Northwest Namibia
First systematic population survey of the desert‐adapted lions, Northwest Namibia Open
The desert‐adapted lions ( Panthera leo ) of northwest Namibia inhabit arid and semi‐arid habitats, primarily within communal conservancy lands, which they share with semi‐nomadic pastoralists. Though of considerable conservation interest,…
View article: Sex-Specific Social Ageing in Wild African Lions
Sex-Specific Social Ageing in Wild African Lions Open
View article: Human Supervision is Key to Achieving Accurate AI-assisted Wildlife Identifications in Camera Trap Images
Human Supervision is Key to Achieving Accurate AI-assisted Wildlife Identifications in Camera Trap Images Open
Using public support to extract information from vast datasets has become a popular method for accurately labeling wildlife data in camera trap (CT) images. However, the increasing demand for volunteer effort lengthens the time interval be…
View article: Livestock activity shifts large herbivore temporal distributions to their crepuscular edges
Livestock activity shifts large herbivore temporal distributions to their crepuscular edges Open
Wildlife species are transitioning to greater crepuscular and nocturnal activity in response to high human densities. This plasticity in temporal niches may partially mitigate the impacts of human activity but may also result in underestim…
View article: Seasonality mediates vital-rate responses to socially- and spatially-explicit density in an African lion population
Seasonality mediates vital-rate responses to socially- and spatially-explicit density in an African lion population Open
Environment-density interactions have important effects on vital rates and population dynamics, especially in species whose demography is strongly influenced by social context, such as the African lion Panthera leo. In populations of such …
View article: Author Correction: Socio-political and ecological fragility of threatened, free-ranging African lion populations
Author Correction: Socio-political and ecological fragility of threatened, free-ranging African lion populations Open
In the original version of this article, the captions for figures 3 and 4 were incomplete.The original sentence "The shaded grid depicts those populations which fall within one standard deviation of the mean." that appears at the end of bo…
View article: Socio-political and ecological fragility of threatened, free-ranging African lion populations
Socio-political and ecological fragility of threatened, free-ranging African lion populations Open
Lions are one of the world’s most iconic species but are threatened with extinction. Developing effective range-wide conservation plans are crucial but hampered by the relative lack of knowledge on specific threats facing each population a…
View article: Oxytocin administration is a potential tool for behavioral management in felids
Oxytocin administration is a potential tool for behavioral management in felids Open
Living in a group setting is essential for the health and wellbeing of social carnivores; however, the managed formation of captive groups of territorial animals can be challenging because of the risk of aggression, injury, and even death.…
View article: A worldwide perspective on large carnivore attacks on humans
A worldwide perspective on large carnivore attacks on humans Open
Large carnivores have long fascinated human societies and have profound influences on ecosystems. However, their conservation represents one of the greatest challenges of our time, particularly where attacks on humans occur. Where human re…
View article: Shepherding Sub-Saharan Africa's Wildlife Through Peak Anthropogenic Pressure Toward a Green Anthropocene
Shepherding Sub-Saharan Africa's Wildlife Through Peak Anthropogenic Pressure Toward a Green Anthropocene Open
Sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA's) iconic biodiversity is of immense potential global value but is jeopardized by increasing anthropogenic pressures. Elevated consumption in wealthier countries and the demands of international corporations manif…
View article: Stabilizing effects of group formation by Serengeti herbivores on predator-prey dynamics
Stabilizing effects of group formation by Serengeti herbivores on predator-prey dynamics Open
Predator-prey theory often assumes that potential prey individuals are solitary and evenly distributed in space. This assumption is violated in social, mobile prey, such as many ungulates. Here we use data from 80 monthly field censuses to…
View article: How “science” can facilitate the politicization of charismatic megafauna counts
How “science” can facilitate the politicization of charismatic megafauna counts Open
Ideally, the practice of science stays independent, informs policy in real time,
\nand facilitates learning. However, when large uncertainties go unreported or are
\nnot effectively communicated, science can, inadvertently, facilitate inap…
View article: Oxytocin promotes social proximity and decreases vigilance in groups of African lions
Oxytocin promotes social proximity and decreases vigilance in groups of African lions Open
View article: Reactive anti-predator behavioral strategy shaped by predator characteristics
Reactive anti-predator behavioral strategy shaped by predator characteristics Open
Large mammalian herbivores use a diverse array of strategies to survive predator encounters including flight, grouping, vigilance, warning signals, and fitness indicators. While anti-predator strategies appear to be driven by specific pred…
View article: Citizen science, computing, and conservation: How can “Crowd AI” change the way we tackle large-scale ecological challenges?
Citizen science, computing, and conservation: How can “Crowd AI” change the way we tackle large-scale ecological challenges? Open
Camera traps - remote cameras that capture images of passing wildlife - have become a ubiquitous tool in ecology and conservation. Systematic camera trap surveys generate ‘Big Data’ across broad spatial and temporal scales, providing valua…
View article: The long lives of primates and the ‘invariant rate of ageing’ hypothesis
The long lives of primates and the ‘invariant rate of ageing’ hypothesis Open
View article: A pan-African spatial assessment of human conflicts with lions and elephants
A pan-African spatial assessment of human conflicts with lions and elephants Open
African lions ( Panthera leo ) and African savanna ( Loxodonta africana ) and forest ( L. cyclotis ) elephants pose threats to people, crops, and livestock, and are themselves threatened with extinction. Here, we map these human-wildlife c…
View article: Mapping out a future for ungulate migrations
Mapping out a future for ungulate migrations Open
Limited mapping of migrations hampers conservation