Scent messages are also used to mark a cat’s territory. They allow neighbors to check each other out without coming face-to-face. Meeting is usually a bad idea for cats.
They can viciously defend their territories against strangers. Male big cats may even fight to the death. Big cats communicate with calls, too. Lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards roar to announce themselves and warn rivals away from their territories. Lions can probably hear each other roar from a distance of about five miles. Big cats make other calls such as coughs, grunts, snarls, and yelps, but the nicest is known as the prusten call. This is made by tigers, jaguars, snow leopards, and clouded leopards. It is a soft, affectionate call of recognition, sometimes also called chuffing. It is often made between a mother and her cubs.
The Amur leopard lives in eastern Russia and China. It grows long, thick fur to survive during freezing cold winters.
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