ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[peter]

'THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL MORPHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF CAPTIVITY', Hartstone-Rose (A) et al, November 2014

Interesting article. The conclusion is that the diet of captive big cats has more effect on skull shape than, for example, sex. This should tell you something, as the differences between skulls of male and female big cats is significant. When you see them next to each other, they seem to belong to two different species. Sexual dimorphism is pronounced in big cats. One reason, apart from size, could be diet.

Diet is the word to remember, as it could be the solution for the problems seen in many captive big cats. The advice of the authors is to change the diet of captive big cats:  

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0113437#pone-0113437-t004 Reply