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Big cats are solitary animals, with the exception of lions and will do their best to avoid one another. They do this by means of chemical and visual communication throughout their territories. These forms of communication are what we try to look for along with tracks, but are not always easy to find.

The size of the territory can range from 7 - 30 sq miles, even more depending on the species. Two factors that determine the size are how many cats of the same species are in the area and the availability of food. A male in its natural habitat could have up to four females with their territories over lapping into his. We do not know the big cat population in this country and a cat could have a small territory with there being a high number of prey animals on which to feed, but may have to travel a great distance to find a mate.

The only time they do come together is to mate and they will stay together for 5 - 7 days while the female is in oestrous and they can mate up to seventy times a day. The reason the male mates so often with the female is to make sure he is the father of any offspring so he passes his genes onto the next generation.

All cats will scratch trees or posts, this is done to sharpen and clean their claws. They have scent glands situated between their toes so while scratching they are also leaving their scent on the tree for other cats to smell. A tree scratching is difficult to identify, a tree has to be regularly scratched to see the indentations, as a tree in a animals captive enclosure would be. The size of the animal the deeper the scratches. Cats spray vegetation or hanging rocks with a jet of urine, this has a distinctive smell that we can also detect up close.

Droppings from a big cat will contain a great deal of hair that they have ingested while grooming. Females may cover their droppings over if they have cubs as not to draw attention to herself and her young by any passing males. Scrapings are made in the soft ground, this is when the cat will use its back legs to make a whole or a mound and will then urinate or defecate into or on this.