Scientists Develop Scent-Based Tool To Monitor India's Big Cats

Tigers and leopards are big cats that live in forests and are very hard to spot.

When they move around, they leave behind smells like urine and poop.

These smells carry secret messages about the animal that left them.

Scientists in India learned how to read these messages using special machines.

The machines can tell whether a smell came from a tiger or a leopard.

They can also tell if it came from a male or female, or a young or old animal.

They even found a special smell that shows up when a mother tiger is having babies.

This means scientists can learn about big cats without chasing or capturing them.

It is like reading a letter the animal left behind in the forest.

This helps people protect tigers and leopards better.