The wild cats, with the exception of the lions and the associations of male cheetahs, are usually regarded as solitary animals, who avoid each other as far as possible and only have closer contact with each other during the mating season and when raising young cats. Something that is also mentioned again and again when it comes to the question of whether our domestic cat is a solitary carnivore or not. A new study, published in the Journal Science Advances, shows that the assumptions regarding the cat as a strict solitary animal in the wild, which have been valid for more than 60 years, now appear in a new light. It is the first scientific work to quantify the complex, enduring and friendly interactions between these wild cats, revealing a very diverse society that is far more tolerant and socially supportive than previously thought. Through the pictures and videos created in the course of the study, it became evident that cougars used the same social strategies as more sociable animals, albeit over longer periods of …