Conservation scientists have a new tool in the battle to save tigers. They have found a way to track the animals via their scent spray, which is—no kidding—a citrus-scented mix of urine and anal gland secretions that tigers use to mark their territory and tell other cats when they’re in the mood for love. Scientists typically use scat to trace tigers. But tiger spray is two to eight times more frequently found than scat, generally as an oily sheen on certain bushes about five feet above the ground. In the new research, published in the June issue of the journal Conservation Genetics Resources, scientists showed that the DNA in tiger spray was better for tracking and identifying individual cats than the genetic material in scat, which breaks down in humid climates.
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