It says a lot about the complexity of Nic Clear and Hyun Jun Park’s submission that, just by looking at them, judges were sensitised to thinking that their images were – at some point in their evolution – stills from a video, so filmic do they appear in their nature.
But throughout the judging process, the vaguely haunting, digitally created images lingered on in the minds of the judges to see them ultimately materialise in first place.
Academics Clear (a professor at the School of Arts and Humanities, Huddersfield University) and Park (architecture course director, Leeds Beckett University) “capture, edit and manipulate point cloud data to document spaces, create speculative projects and spatial propositions that engage with, and respond to, specific site narratives”.
The Ghost image declares itself “a collage that blurs delineation between actual and virtual”. The 3D laser scan echoes “drawings of Beaux Arts academicism”, rendered as black-and-white overlays of images, feeling like “X-rays” but critically “alluding to issues of time and the patina of age”. Judges responded to the highly composed nature of this image, intimating AI but remaining firmly under the control of the authors.
But it was The WavEs – renders extracted from a point cloud scan video of Virginia Woolf’s garden and writing lodge at Monk’s House, her home in Rodmell, East Sussex – that really excited judges, “tracing dream-like vectors as if motivated by the desire-lines of Woolf’s restless characters”.
“The other work is to some extent just beautiful collage,” observed Samantha Hardingham, “but this one really feels like an evocation or a study of a place in time.”
Koldo Lus Arana agreed with the technical skill and ‘familiarity’ of the former, but said the latter had an “Eadweard Muybridge cinematographic feel – of flattened time passing”.
Mary Duggan felt “compelled to move through the image” while Jan-Carlos Kucharek felt “a strange sense of being drawn through both time and space on paper”.
“The scans are able to capture the garden in ways that appear both substantial and yet ethereal,” wrote Clear. But it was the artful complexity of the layering that somehow reified the drawing, with Lus Arana noting “a highly adept composition that becomes more alive the more you look into it.”
10.05pm, ITV2 Jordan Gray is a cracking new comic talent and her first sitcom is full of zingers. Based on her YouTube videos, it follows a transgender woman, Olivia (Gray), who has been hired by the supermarket boss Simon (Nick Frost) to help save his reputation after an LGBTQ+ marketing faux pas. Lazy Olivia is well aware that this means she can get away with anything without getting fired – and this week she actually tries to get too-nice-to-be-true Millie (Francesca Mills) fired instead. Hollie Richardson
The Traitors NZ
8.05pm, BBC Three Even if you haven’t been following New Zealand’s second series of the hit reality competition franchise, it’s easy for fans of the show to get into the last week of episodes – with the final on Wednesday. Paul Henry is the charismatic host and there are plenty of big characters to up the drama. HR
To Catch a Stalker
9pm, BBC Three “Inflicting pure fear … how is that love?” Both episodes of Zara McDermott’s documentary air on Tuesday, telling the true stories of women who have been stalked by ex-partners and total strangers. It’s accessible but still petrifying – not least when McDermott meets Isobel, whose emergency escape plan involves jumping from the roof of her home. Hannah J Davies
The Yorkshire Vet: At Home With the Greens
9pm, Channel 5 As farmer Steve’s 96th birthday looms, thoughts turn towards his faithful colleague of 70 years, Oddjob – a tractor that looks primed for the scrap heap. While specialist mechanics help with a surprise makeover, a trip to Thirsk market and a stray kitten at a local steel yard make it another gently busy week in North Yorkshire. Jack Seale
10pm, Channel 4
On the case … Emilia Fox and David Wilson. Photograph: Channel 4
Emilia Fox once again joins the criminologist David Wilson and the detective Dr Graham Hill as this true crime series continues. This time, the brutal, unsolved 1991 murder of Vera Anderson is explored. Vera was found strangled in her car – but who dialled her number and caused her to leave her home so suddenly? Phil Harrison
Storyville: The Srebrenica Tape
10pm, BBC Four This deeply emotive personal story set against the mass horrors of the Bosnian war is told by Alisa, who possesses a VHS tape that her father filmed for her during the enclave years of Srebrenica. It sets her on a journey in search of her family’s history. HR
Film choices
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Francis Lawrence, 2023), Netflix
Always singing … Rachel Zegler in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Photograph: BFA/Alamy
This needs to be said upfront: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a musical. Even though the film’s publicity really did not want you to know about it, this is a film in which Rachel Zegler will not stop singing. But forewarned is forearmed, and once the shock of the genre has worn off, what’s left might be the best Hunger Games movie yet. A prequel, this is an origin story for Coriolanus Snow (the authoritarian ruler played in previous movies by Donald Sutherland), so it gets to exist in the moral murk more happily than the rest of the series. Stuart Heritage
The Damned United (Tom Hooper, 2009), 12am, BBC Two Long before The King’s Speech made him an A-lister (and even longer before Cats blew his career to smithereens), Tom Hooper made probably his best film. A wilfully inaccurate biopic of Brian Clough’s ill-fated stint as manager of Leeds United in 1974, the film is like a tug-of-war between a headstrong individual and an immovable corporation. It is truly fantastic, with Michael Sheen operating at the highest possible level as the cocky, obstinate Clough. A wonderful celebration of a complex man. SH
Live sport
Cricket: women’s international T20, England v India 6pm, Sky Sports Main Event. The second T20 in the five-match series from Bristol.
A third stage to showcase more local musicians will return to a Coventry music festival, enabling it to also celebrate its twin city of Kingston, Jamaica.
The Cov ConneX Kingston Stage will be back at the Godiva Festival after organisers secured funding worth almost £30,000 from National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Around 40 city-based artists will take to the stage over the weekend with styles ranging from rap, grime, afrobeat and reggae to DJs and MCs, all about celebrating local inspiration alongside the sounds of Jamaica.
Councillor Abdul Salam Khan said the stage’s return will add “something extra special and I know it will be a big attraction for all music lovers”.
The headliners this year have been confirmed as Marc Almond, Clean Bandit and Ocean Colour Scene.
Staged in Coventry’s War Memorial Park the council-organised festival runs from Friday until Sunday.
A second stage, called the Cov Stage, will also host local talent.
Councillor Naeem Akhtar described Coventry as a “great musical city.”
“Godiva is loved by so many, and with the music stages supported by a host of other attractions for families and visitors of all ages, it’s going to be another memorable weekend for the city,” he said.
It’s billed as a play not a musical but Stereophonic, the US hit now in London, has some of the best new songs played on a West End stage this decade. The tracks deepen the relationships within a rising yet imploding 70s band during coke-fuelled sessions for their new LP. But the songs become the source of much drama, too, not least when the group fight over which will make the final album. How could they cut Masquerade?! Happily it’s included on the original, sensational Broadway cast recording alongside Bright, a track catchy enough to warrant its trio of versions.
A Tupperware of Ashes
“Queen Lear” was playwright Tanika Gupta’s pitch for her 2024 drama about a British Bengali restaurateur and mother of three who is diagnosed with early onset dementia. Meera Syal plays the lead role. Available on National Theatre at Home from 8 July.
King Lear
A chance to look (or listen) to Lear itself. Richard Wilson as the king is reason enough to tune in but this Drama on 4 BBC radio production of Shakespeare’s towering tragedy also boasts David Tennant, Greta Scacchi, Tamsin Greig and Toby Jones.
Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story
“She had the thing that you can’t teach,” runs one accolade for Liza Minnelli in this documentary that takes in her illustrious lineage and the highs and lows of her personal life while also showcasing her electrifying performances. On BBC iPlayer.
Krista Apple in Jon Fosse’s A Summer Day. Photograph: Johanna Austin
A Summer Day
Jon Fosse won the Nobel prize in literature in 2023, praised by the committee for expressing “the most powerful human emotions of anxiety and powerlessness in the simplest everyday terms”. Philadelphia’s Wilma theatre presents A Summer Day, his meditation on memory, available 7-27 July.
A Night With Janis Joplin
A tribute to blazing singer-songwriter featuring her tracks, her influences and a piece of her heart. Mary Bridget Davies dons the round glasses for the musical, filmed at the Peacock theatre in London in 2024. On Marquee TV from 4 July.
In Praise of Love
In this 1973 play, Terence Rattigan “came as close as he ever did to exposing his own emotional defensiveness”, wrote Michael Billington. The Orange Tree’s revival runs at the theatre until 5 July and is then available on demand, 8-11 July.
The Classics ReFramed
From Sadler’s Wells, here is a trio of short films that reimagine classic works. Folu Odimayo’s The Lions are Coming draws on The Rite of Spring, Mythili Prakash’s Mollika is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore and Aṁṁonia, choreographed by Emma Farnell-Watson and Kieran Lai, pays homage to Pina Bausch.
The city of Bath does not fight shy of promoting its Jane Austen connections, tempting in visitors from around the world by organising tours, balls, afternoon teas and writing and embroidery workshops inspired by the author. If you have the inclination, you can buy souvenirs ranging from Jane Austen Top Trumps to a Mr Darcy rubber duck.
But in this, the 250th anniversary year of her birth, an exhibition is being launched daring to point out that in truth Austen wasn’t terribly happy during the five years she lived in the city.
Called The Most Tiresome Place in the World: Jane Austen & Bath, the exhibition at the museum and venue No 1 Royal Crescent highlights the rather miserable time she had in the Georgian city.
Although she disliked Bath, Jane Austen used the city extensively as backdrops in two of her novels, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
Izzy Wall, the curator for the exhibition, said: “Bath is known for Jane Austen and I think just about every organisation in Bath, including us, use it. We benefit from the association. But she didn’t like living in the city. She’s got lots of not particularly pleasant things to say about it.”
When Austen was told the family were moving from Hampshire to Bath, she is said to have fainted. “How much that is exaggerated, we’ll never know, but it’s a good story,” Wall said. “She was pulled up from her lovely idyllic country life into a big smoky city.
“We look at Bath today as a beautiful, historic town but in Austen’s time it was still a building site in places. Every house had a smoking chimney and it was lacking in proper sewage. Parts of it, at least, wouldn’t have been the nicest place to be.”
A manuscript of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons, which is going on display in Bath in an exhibition looking at her time in the city. Photograph: The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford,
Austen lived in Bath between 1801 and 1806. In a letter she wrote that features in the exhibition, she described her first view of Bath as “all vapour, shadow, smoke & confusion”.
There was grief in 1805 when Austen’s father caught a fever in Bath and died. “He was frail,” said Wall, “but it was out of the blue, a heartbreaking thing for Jane Austen. Her father was loving and kind and really supportive of her writing. It also meant financial insecurity for the family.”
Wall said Austen barely wrote when she was in Bath. “The only thing she wrote was the start of a novel called The Watsons. She had a go at writing but didn’t get very far.”
Visitors will see a segment of The Watsons manuscript, borrowed from the the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford. It is thought to be the first time it has returned to Bath since Austen wrote it.
Wall said that after the family left Bath for Chawton in Hampshire, Austen became productive again. A letter Austen wrote in 1808 that also appears in the show describes her “happy feelings of Escape!” after leaving Bath.
Though she didn’t like Bath, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t inspired by it. She had visited before the family moved and used the city extensively as backdrops in two of her novels, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.
Wall said Bath was a key place for Austen. “She was absorbing everything, watching and weaving it into her narratives.” She said fans loved walking in the streets Austen knew. “But we want to lift the lid, scratch the surface and look into the complex relationship she had with the city.”
The title for the exhibition is taken from a conversation in Northanger Abbey between Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney when he says: “For six weeks, I allow Bath is pleasant enough; but beyond that, it is the most tiresome place in the world.”
As well as the exhibition, the house will be running tours, talks and events in a programme funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
A wave of big-name acts including Taylor Swift, Charli xcx and Bruce Springsteen helped to attract a record of more than 23 million live music fans in the UK last year, leading to an unprecedented £10bn of spending across the UK economy.
A report from the industry body UK Music estimates that 23.5 million “music tourists” attended concerts and festivals last year, up almost a quarter on the 19.2 million in 2023.
While the vast majority, 93%, were UK music fans, the number of overseas music tourists climbed to 1.6 million, a 62% annual increase.
The Hometown Glory report credited Swift’s Eras tour, the most commercially successful tour of all time, with helping to drive the figures to a “new high”, while festivals including Glastonbury, Download and Boardmasters also proved to be big draws.
Other major acts who played in the UK last year included Sam Fender, Olivia Rodrigo, Girls Aloud, Chappell Roan, the Killers and Foo Fighters.
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, said: “These numbers show just how powerful the UK is as a home for live music, attracting the biggest acts, drawing millions of fans, and giving a real boost to local economies through tourism and jobs.”
Spending on music tourism hit a record £10bn last year, up by about 25% over the £8bn spent in 2023. The figure includes £5.1bn spent directly by music tourists on tickets, food and drink, merchandise, travel, parking and accommodation.
It also includes £4.9bn classified as indirect spending such as on fencing and security at concerts.
While the additional 4.3 million music tourists that attended gigs and concerts last year helped fuel the record £10bn spend, it has also been boosted by the impact of inflation on accommodation, travel and food and drink as well as soaring ticket prices.
This year, Oasis fans are expected to splash out more than £1bn on the reunion tour, more than £766 a person across the 17-date tour.
The report highlights the dominance of London, which is home to big arenas such as the O2 and Wembley, which drew 7.5 million music fans and accounted for £2.7bn of the total £10bn in revenues. The capital was followed by the north-west of England, with 3.3 million visitors and £1.2bn in revenues, and the south-west of England, with 2.5 million music tourists and £1.1bn.
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Overall, the live music industry supported 72,000 full-time equivalent jobs last year, up from 62,000 in 2023, according to UK Music.
However, the report also highlights the increasing pressure on the industry, with 250 festivals having ceased to operate between 2019 and June this year.
“While music generates huge benefits for our local areas, there remain a number of challenges facing our sector such as the rising cost of touring for artists and the threat of closure looming over venues, studios and other music spaces.”
Jason Aldean is taking his Full Throttle Tour global. The ACM Artist of the Decade and multi-time Entertainer of the Year announced the international extension of his current tour today (July 1), revealing a run of shows in Australia and New Zealand for early 2026.
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The newly announced dates will mark Aldean’s debut headline performance in New Zealand and his first time returning to Australia since 2016, when he became the first headliner to sell out CMC Rocks QLD. The 2026 leg kicks off February 19 at Spark Arena in Auckland, before heading to Australia for a mix of arena shows and festival appearances. Aldean is also set to headline the inaugural Sunburnt Country country music experience, which includes stops in Toowoomba, Hunter Valley and Canberra.
Corey Kent will join as a special guest on all dates, while Australian country star Brad Cox will open the Sunburnt Country festival dates.
Produced by Live Nation, the Full Throttle World Tour continues Aldean’s global touring legacy following a massive U.S. leg that launched in May 2025 and resumes July 17 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 2026 extension marks his first time headlining in New Zealand and his long-awaited return to Australia since 2016, when he became the first artist to sell out CMC Rocks QLD as a headliner.
Aldean has racked up 30 No. 1 country radio hits across his career, along with over 20 million albums sold and nearly 20 billion global streams. His current single “Whiskey Drink” marks his 30th chart-topping hit, following previous anthems like “She’s Country,” “Amarillo Sky,” and “Big Green Tractor.”
Tickets for the newly announced Australia and New Zealand shows go on sale Monday, July 7 at 1 p.m. local time.
A range of presales begin Wednesday, July 2, including Mastercard, Live Nation, and One NZ offerings, with select early access also available for Face to Face Touring members. More information, including VIP packages, is available at livenation.com.au and livenation.co.nz.
AU/NZ 2026 TOUR DATES: Feb. 19 – Auckland, NZ – Spark Arena Feb. 21 – Toowoomba, QLD – Sunburnt Country Feb. 22 – Brisbane, QLD – Brisbane Entertainment Centre Feb. 25 – Melbourne, VIC – Rod Laver Arena Feb. 26 – Sydney, NSW – Qudos Bank Arena Feb. 28 – Hunter Valley, NSW – Sunburnt Country Mar. 1 – Canberra, ACT – Sunburnt Country
Picture early 20th-century France: dusty roads, fewer than 3,000 cars in total, and a country where hitting the highway was a daring adventure. Enter brothers André and Édouard Michelin – tire manufacturers with a dream.In 1900, they launched the Guide Michelin, a complimentary handbook packed with maps, repair tips, and places to rest or dine. It was a clever ploy to encourage travel and tire wear.However, to everyone’s surprise and delight – the guide quickly found a new purpose: enhancing gastronomic exploration.
In 1926, Michelin introduced a single star for “fine dining,” and by 1931, fleshed this out into the familiar one–two–three star system – laying the groundwork for culinary prestige.Here’s how the Michelin brothers transformed a humble tire company’s pamphlet into the global authority on culinary excellence.Let’s take a trip down that delicious journey!
From a motorist’s manual to a cultural icon: The becoming
What started as an unlikely venture of a tire company changed the course of how people tasted and praised meals. In 1889, the Michelin brothers founded their tire company in Clermont-Ferrand. As automobiles slowly began appearing on French roads – fewer than 3,000 nationwide – the brothers recognized a business opportunity. They created a guidebook with maps, garage listings, tire-repair advice, and hotel and restaurant suggestions to entice drivers to travel – and wear out tires faster.The inaugural edition appeared in 1900. Over 35,000 copies of this complimentary guide were distributed – fuel for the infant auto industry.
Legend has it that, somewhere along the line, guides were repurposed to support mechanics’ workbenches. Moved by this realization, Michelin began charging a modest seven francs in 1920. As the saying goes, “people truly respect what they pay for.”
From maps to meals: Emphasizing restaurants
Initially, restaurant listings played a minor role. But by the 1920s, Michelin noticed that diners prized culinary guidance the most. They decided to run the guide ad-free, add detailed restaurant categories, and recruit anonymous inspectors – paid diners tasked with assessing establishments impartially.
1920–1931: The stars were born
As the guide gained credibility, its restaurant section began to attract more attention. Michelin hired anonymous inspectors to dine incognito, providing impartial evaluations.In 1926, they introduced the first star: a single indication of “fine dining.” This simple star sent shockwaves through the culinary world – it wasn’t just a meal; it was recognition.Only five years later, in 1931, came the now-iconic three-tiered hierarchy:One star: “Very good restaurant in its category.”Two stars: “Excellent cooking, worth a detour.”Three stars: “Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” That year also saw the guide donning its signature red cover, emblematic of its transformation into a hallmark of luxury.
The secret sauce behind the shining stars
What makes a Michelin star so coveted?Inspection standards: Inspectors remain anonymous, pay their own bills, and return multiple times to ensure consistency. Judging hinges on five core factors: ingredient quality, cooking technique, chef’s personality, value, and consistency.Credibility through anonymity: This covert evaluation builds trust. Michelin’s unswerving standards – undeclared visits, tab payment, and no decor bias – promote fairness and respect, even among the elite chefs being reviewed.Influence and pressure: Stars carry enormous weight. Gaining one can make a chef overnight; losing it can devastate careers. The tragic case of Bernard Loiseau, who died amid rumors of losing a third star, sparked debate about the psychological toll of Michelin’s influence.
Going global, gastronomically
Beyond France: Global expansion and modern adaptationsPost-World War II, guide production resumed, helping rejuvenate travel and hospitality. From the 1950s onward, the Michelin Guide went global – Italy in 1956; from the 2000s, it jumped continents to New York (2005), Tokyo (2007), and Hong Kong (2009). Today, it spans over 40 countries and evaluates more than 30,000 establishments.Michelin also introduced the Bib Gourmand in 1997, recognizing restaurants that deliver excellent food without the indulgence of stars, making the guide more inclusive.
The dark side of the moon: The star’s shadow
With prestige came pressure. Michelin recognition can be transformative – reservations soar, global acclaim follows. Yet, it also comes with pressure. Stars opened doors – and shut them. Chefs felt immense stress to maintain standards. In 2003, tragic rumors linked the suicide of Bernard Loiseau to the fear of losing a third star. Some chefs even returned stars voluntarily, rejecting the intense scrutiny.Critics have also accused Michelin of promoting elitism and sidelining regional authenticity in favor of conformity.
The hall of fame
Eugénie Brazier – Six-Star Pioneer: In 1933, Lyonnaise chef Eugénie Brazier became the first person to hold six Michelin stars – three for each of her two restaurants – a feat that stood unparalleled until Alain Ducasse in 1998.Brazier and Marie Bourgeois became the first three-star female chefs, featured in the 1933 edition.The 1939 guide was even repurposed by Allied forces for its reliable maps during D-Day.The guide has embraced diverse talents. Vegan chef Claire Vallée earned her star, and Lung King Heen became the first Chinese restaurant to ever receive three stars.
From tires to tastemakers: The lasting (and tasty) legacy
What began as a marketing gimmick morphed into an authority in fine dining. The Michelin star system, born from a desire to prompt travel and rooted in delicious discovery, has reshaped global dining in the 20th and 21st centuries. Michelin’s guide restructured food culture, blending rigorous evaluation with the romance of travel. It launched restaurant empires, invented celebrity chefs, and extended gastronomic frontiers. Today, its stars guide diners across continents, inspire chefs to new heights, and maintain strict standards from invisible tables behind kitchen doors. To this day, the Michelin Star system remains a marvel of corporate creativity and cultural transformation. Alberto Pic’s 3-star valuation, Mère Brazier’s pioneering tenure, and Loiseau’s tragic story – all serve as testament to this fascinating pivot from industrial marketing to gastronomical reverence. From humble tire guides propping up mechanics’ benches to red books held by gourmands worldwide – the Michelin journey is a testament to transformation, taste, and tenacity in the pursuit of excellence.
On world food day, Vardhan Puri shares his biggest kitchen disaster
SEOUL – Shares in South Korean companies tied to the hit Netflix series Squid Game (2021 to 2025) slumped on June 30 following the release of the show’s final season, which debuted to a lukewarm audience reception despite topping global streaming charts.
Artist Company, an entertainment agency in which Squid Game’s main actor Lee Jung-jae is the largest shareholder, tanked by as much as 21 per cent. Artist Studio, a unit of Artist Company, also declined 24 per cent. South Korea-based Dexter Studios, a visual effects production firm that is a partner on the blockbuster production, fell 8.5 per cent.
“Much of the criticism stems from how the show ended – viewers whose interpretation of the show’s worldview doesn’t align with theirs,” said Mr Kim Hern-sik, a pop culture critic in Seoul. “It’s hard to top Season 1 – it was a global sensation.”
The third season of Netflix’s anti-capitalist parable, which premiered on June 27, was directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk and stars Lee, Lee Byung-hun and Im Si-wan, among other South Korean actors.
The television series topped the global TV show rankings on Netflix in all countries, according to FlixPatrol, which tracks viewing on streaming services. Season 3 earned an 83 per cent approval rating among professional critics and a 51 per cent approval rating from audiences, according to review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.
First released in 2021, Squid Game became a cultural phenomenon, igniting global conversations with its brutal social allegory and captivating visuals. It remains Netflix’s most-watched show of all time, drawing about 600 million views to date across the first two seasons.
The South Korean dystopian survival thriller has won six Emmy awards, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Lee Jung-jae and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for Hwang, in 2022. Bloomberg
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A two-year study has mapped behavioural patterns and scent-marking preferences among India’s last wild lions, offering rare insights into how they communicate.
Among all observed behaviours, sniffing was the most common, accounting for nearly 40% of the recorded actions. This was followed by scratching and spraying.
As Gir’s lion population grows, knowing where and how they mark territory can guide conservation practices, from protecting key habitats and movement corridors to planning for coexistence in shared landscapes.
Mammals, most prominently carnivorous species, use scent-marking as a crucial form of communication. Lions, for example, use urine, faeces, and secretions from scent glands to leave behind long-lasting chemical signals on trees and trails. While these are invisible to the human eye, they carry a meaning for other lions in that area.
A study conducted in Gujarat’s Gir Forest focussed on decoding some of this hidden communication. “This is the first detailed scientific study of scent-marking in free-ranging Asiatic lions, and it reveals how scent is a powerful tool for territory defence, mate attraction, and social interaction,” says Mohan Ram, Divisional Forest Officer, Wildlife Division, Sasan-Gir, Gir National Park and Sanctuary, and one of the lead researchers.
Leaving a mark
Gir Forest, which includes a national park and sanctuary, is spread across nearly 1,900 square kilometres in Gujarat’s Saurashtra region. It is home to over 40 species of mammals, including leopards, hyenas, and jackals, but the lion is its undisputed icon. To understand how the big cats use scent to communicate, researchers collaborated with Gir’s seasoned field trackers. These experts helped identify trees that showed signs of regular scratching and are favoured spots for lion scent-marking.
At 36 such locations, the team installed motion-triggered infrared cameras between March 2022 and April 2024. “Across three seasons, we faced all kinds of challenges, from sensor triggers caused by birds or wind to monsoon rains that washed away scent marks. Reaching camera trap locations during heavy rain was a task in itself. Plus, the volume of data collected was enormous, and it took a lot of effort to sift through and sort out usable footage,” says Ram.
Each time a lion passed by the cameras captured a short video and a photograph. In total, they logged over 15,000 wildlife detections, of which 1,542 featured lions. Every lion video was carefully analysed for specific behaviours such as sniffing, scratching, spraying, rubbing, and even climbing. “Camera trapping helped us capture behaviour without disturbing the lions. We also kept the camera settings standard across sites and seasons to ensure consistency,” says Ram.
Researchers also documented tree characteristics such as species, height, girth, and proximity to roads or water to understand what made certain trees more likely to be used as scent posts.
The data was then grouped by season, time of day, the lion’s age and sex, and the traits of the marked trees. Using statistical tools, the team mapped out behavioural patterns and scent-marking preferences across the Gir landscape.
Marking scent part of daily routine
Among all observed behaviours, sniffing was the most common, accounting for nearly 40% of the recorded actions. This was followed by scratching (30%) and spraying (12%). Young lions were more likely to climb trees, possibly as playful behaviour or a way of learning.
Males were the more active scent-markers, often around pride territories. Females also left their mark, especially when they were in heat. “It’s a key part of territorial and reproductive strategy in a species with such a limited geographic range. Sub-adults were also seen using the same trees repeatedly, almost like they were learning how to mark territory,” says Ram.
Young lions were more likely to climb trees, possibly as playful behaviour or a way of learning, according to a study on Gir lions. Image by Mohan Ram.
Most of these behaviours occurred in the early morning hours, with scratching and spraying peaking at 3:44 a.m. and 4:17 a.m. respectively. This pattern suggests that scent-marking is a deliberate and well-timed part of the lions’ daily routines.
Winter turned out to be the busiest season for scent-marking. This aligns with the peak of lion mating season, highlighting the link between chemical communication and reproduction. “Cooler temperatures meant more lion movement, which led to more marking. Interestingly, lions often chose tilted trees (around 45 degrees) because the spray lands better and holds fragrance longer, especially in the monsoon,” says Ram.
Identifying a good marking spot
Lions also didn’t mark trees at random. They showed clear preferences for certain species, especially Butea monosperma and Syzygium cumini. “We noticed that the lions preferred trees with soft bark or gum, species with strong secondary metabolites, likely because the scent tends to linger longer. Teak trees were avoided; the bark is too hard to claw,” says Ram.
Location played a key role too. Most of the marked trees were near forest trails and water sources. Trails serve as lion highways, ideal places to advertise presence to rivals or potential mates. “The preferred trees were often near trails, indicating lions may be aligning marking behaviour with movement corridors, possibly even taking human presence into account,” explains Ram.
Moist environments may also help preserve chemical signals for longer durations. Scrub habitats, in particular, recorded more scent-marking activity. Their open structure likely makes scent-posts more visible and accessible.
Female lions left scent marks, especially when they were in heat, noted the study. Image by Mohan Ram.
Why studying behaviour matters
Asiatic lions differ from their African counterparts in many ways. They live in smaller groups, don’t breed in synchrony, and are confined to a single, limited landscape in western India. These unique conditions shape how they interact, compete, and survive.
By identifying where and when scent-marking takes place, this study offers valuable insights into lion behaviour. The findings can help conservationists refine strategies for habitat protection, water management, boundary marking, and lion monitoring ensuring the continued survival of India’s last wild lions. “Knowing which tree species lions prefer can guide habitat improvement efforts. It can even help prevent poaching by identifying high-use marking spots,” says Ram.
The researchers recommend that future studies combine scent-marking data with GPS collaring to track individual lions over time. This approach could reveal more details such as whether specific lions favour particular trees, and how their marking behaviours shift with seasons, age, or social status. All these insights could be particularly valuable as the lion population eventually grows and begins expanding into Gir’s neighbouring areas. “It can directly inform habitat planning beyond Gir, and support strategies for lion movement and coexistence with local communities,” Ram says.
Read more: Asiatic lion population has grown 172% in 25 years
Banner image: A study found that among all observed behaviours of Gir lions, sniffing was the most common, accounting for nearly 40% of the recorded actions. Image by Mohan Ram.
