When a tiger uses a road regularly it invariably leaves signs of its passage by making scratch marks on the side of the road. These scratch marks, made for the same purpose as similar marks made by domestic cats and all other members of the cat family, are of very great interest to the sportsman, for they provide him with the following very useful information,
1) whether the animal that has made the mark is a male or a female,
2) the direction in which it was travelling,
3) the length of time that has elapsed since it passed,
4) the direction and approximate distance of its headquarters,
5) the nature of its kills, and finally
6) whether the animal has recently had a meal of human flesh.
The value of this easily-acquired information to one who is hunting a man-eater on strange ground will be easily understood. Tigers leave their pug marks on the roads they use and these pug marks can provide one with quite a lot of useful information, as for instance the direction and speed at which the animal was travelling, its sex and age, whether all four limbs are sound, and if not sound, which particular limb, is defective.
-Jim Corbett
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