Territorial boundaries are regularly marked off with urine, feces, facial marking, and scraping on the ground and trees. Leopards are solitary, nocturnal, and secretive cats. They spend a lot of time up in the trees, resting far above lions and hyenas, which can easily overpower the leopard. They eat, sleep, mate, and stalk prey from the trees. Lions and hyenas in Africa, and tigers in Asia take their toll on the leopard population, if they can catch them.
Leopards have claws that are retractable, hooked, and very sharp.
This enables them to climb trees almost effortlessly. However, these claws are also a deadly weapon. The sharp hooked claws can tear through their prey's flesh easily, and helps the leopard catch and hold their prey down. Because the claws are curved so much, a lot of debris and bacteria are caught underneath of them, so a scratch from a leopard can cause a severe infection, and can be very deadly. Leopards keep their claws sharp by clawing the bark of trees, which helps to shed the outer layer of the nail.