老虎和狮子都是兽中之王，但它们谁更有“头脑”？英国的一项最新研究显示，老虎比狮子的脑容量大，理应更加“智勇双全”。
英国牛津大学的研究人员日前报告说，他们检测了大量的老虎、狮子、非洲豹及美洲豹的头骨样本。结果发现，尽管狮子头骨的最大长度大于老虎，但其脑容量却小于老虎，即使是小型的雌性巴厘虎（曾栖息于印尼巴厘岛，于上世纪灭绝），其脑容量也超过大型的非洲雄狮。此外，从脑容量占整个颅腔的比例来看，狮子、非洲豹和美洲豹相差无几，而老虎的这一比例要比它们高出约16％。
牛津大学发布的新闻公报说，狮子是群居动物，而老虎通常是单独行动，曾有理论认为群居带来的社会交往有助于大脑发育，但现在看来这一说法有待商榷。由于这些大型猫科动物源于相同祖先，进一步研究将有助于了解导致它们大脑进化不同的原因。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society Volume 98 Issue 1, Pages 85 - 93
Brain size of the lion (Panthera leo) and the tiger (P. tigris): implications for intrageneric phylogeny, intraspecific differences and the effects of captivity
NOBUYUKI YAMAGUCHI 1*, ANDREW C. KITCHENER 2 , EMMANUEL GILISSEN 3 and DAVID W. MACDONALD 1
1 Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Abingdon OX13 5QL, UK
2 Department of Natural Sciences, National Museums Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF, UK
3 Department of African Zoology, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, and Université Libre de Bruxelles, Laboratory of Histology and Neuropathology CP 620, 808 route de Lennik, B-1070 Brussels, Belgium
Intraspecific encephalization of the lion and the tiger is investigated for the first time using a very large sample. Using cranial volume as a measure of brain size, the tiger has a larger brain relative to greatest length of skull than the lion, the leopard and the jaguar. The Asian lion has a relatively much smaller brain compared with those of sub-Saharan lions, between which there are few differences. The Balinese and Javan tigers had relatively larger brains compared with those of Malayan and Sumatran tigers, even although these four putative subspecies occupy adjacent ranges in south-eastern Asia. Differences in brain size do not appear to correlate with any known differences in behaviour and ecology and, therefore, may reflect only chance differences in intrageneric and intraspecific phylogeny. However, captive-bred big cats generally have a reduced brain size compared with that of wild animals, so that an animal's life history and living conditions may affect brain size and, hence, functional or environmental explanations should be considered when linking brain size differences to intraspecific phylogenies.
