Lions in the Serengeti and in the Ngorongoro Crater have been studied continuously since the 1960's. Today, the research is supervised by Dr. Craig Packer. Craig, along with Dr. Anne Pusey (who now studies chimpanzees), began studying the lions in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in 1978, with the goal of understanding why lions are the only social felid, and why their behavior is so cooperative. His most recent scientific publication concerns the surprising absence of dominance hierarchies among female lions.

Our research is concentrated in the Serengeti National Park, an approximately 5,100 square mile area which is famous for both the annual wildebeest migration and the large resident population of lions. Along the northern boundary of the Serengeti is the Masai Mara National Park in Kenya. Our focus is on the lions living in the south-eastern corner of the park, an area consisting largely of the famous Serengeti plains along with plains-woodlands transition areas. We also study the lions living in the Ngorongoro Crater, a 10x12 mile volcanic caldera that is home to 50,000 animals including a resident population of approximately 60 lions.

Craig's teaching commitments keep him from spending long periods of time in the field so most of the day-to-day research is conducted by field assistants and graduate students. Students live in the "Lion House", which is located in the Serengeti Wildlife Research Center, a collection of buildings and research offices near the headquarters of the park in Seronera.

Long-term Monitoring
All of our work depends on maintaining demographic records on every lion in our study area. Where do the lions spend most of their time? How healthy are they? These are among the important questions we address through the monitoring project.

Lion Mane Research
Peyton West, one of Dr. Packer's graduate students, has been studying the manes of male lions. Does one type of mane provide a male with an advantage over other males? Do females prefer certain types of manes over others? These are some of the questions that Peyton is attempting to answer.