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A large cardboard box with torn, ragged edges lying on its side on a sunny lawn inside a wire-mesh fence, with shredded cardboard strips on the grass around it
October 6, 2026 Aaron Seminoff

Big Cats in Boxes: Video and Why Cats Love Cardboard

Tigers, lions, and leopards are big cats, and the Big Cat Rescue video of them with cardboard boxes is titled “BIG CATS like boxes too!” Its description reads: “Tigers, Lions & Leopards love boxes too! Just like domestic cats!” Cats Protection, a UK cat charity, says big cats in captivity “have been observed using boxes in much the same way as domestic cats, with lions often seen playing with and shredding them.”

Watch the Big Cat Rescue Video

The video comes from the Big Cat Rescue YouTube channel and runs 2 minutes 48 seconds. Its description adds: “BIG CAT TV is a close look into the wild cat conservation efforts we support, and the exotic feline residents of Big Cat Rescue who we now support at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge.” Fans of the video can wear their support in a rescue shirt.

Where Big Cat Rescue Is Now

Big Cat Rescue says its work for wild cats dates to 1992. Its home page states: “In 2024, Big Cat Rescue moved all of our cats to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge and pays for their lifetime care. We no longer run a sanctuary.” The organization says it now funds wild cat conservation projects worldwide and works to end the exploitation of big cats.

Another page on its site says Big Cat Rescue “will continue to fund the food and vet care for the last of their cats who they moved to Arkansas for better weather and more space.”

Do Big Cats Like Boxes?

Cats Protection says boxes “are a perfect addition to their enclosures” and that they “allow the cats to explore and interact with something new and tap into their natural hunting instincts by offering opportunities to hide and pounce.” It also says: “So just like they do for our domestic cats, the humble cardboard box is the perfect way to add environmental enrichment for big cats.”

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo page on its male lions, Jumbe and Shaka, says they “play with a variety of enrichment items” and that keepers sprinkle fennel, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice “inside the habitat for the lions’ mental stimulation.”

Why Do Cats Want The Cardboard Box

A cream and brown tabby cat curled up inside a small cardboard box on a striped blanket

Cats Protection veterinary nurse Helen Crofts says a box offers more than a place to sit: “A cat cannot only sit in it, they can climb on it, chew it or hide behind it should the mood take them.” She traces the habit to ancestry: “Our domestic cats share ancestry with the African wildcat.”

Crofts writes: “For a cat, a cardboard box is brilliant because it can serve both needs. It allows them to find a safe and private place to rest, away from the busyness of modern life, such as noisy people and other pets. And, if turned on its side, it provides an elevated place to sit and watch the world go by.” She describes the African wildcat as living where it must “try and avoid being eaten by much bigger predators,” and says a good place to sleep is hidden from view and that climbing up somewhere high helps “to keep out of harm’s way.”

Some house cats also like jumping from high places.

Crofts says some cats turn down an expensive bed “in favour of the cardboard box it came in,” and writes: “it is simply that a cardboard box is hard to beat.” Her advice is to leave boxes out “and see if your cat wants to use them,” and she suggests lining one with an old jumper. She also writes that “The hours of fun that a box can provide are endless.” A box is one of the interactive toys a cat can have.

Boxes are not the only household item cats go for. Cats also take to toilet paper.

What Studies Say About Cats and Boxes

A randomized controlled trial in a Dutch animal shelter, published in PLoS ONE in 2020 by van der Leij and colleagues, split 23 newly arrived cats aged 1 to 10 years into two groups: 12 cats with a hiding box and 11 without. The boxes were cardboard, 44 x 31 x 26 cm. Stress was scored with the Cat-Stress-Score, a behavior-based scale. The authors report that cats with a hiding box showed “a significant faster decrease in the CSS, reaching a lower CSS-steady state seven days earlier than the control group.”

The same paper reports that “hiding boxes did not significantly influence weight loss” and that “no differences were found in the adoption rates and the LOS between both groups,” where LOS is length of stay at the shelter. Its conclusion: “Hiding enrichment reduces behavioural stress in shelter cats during quarantine situations and can therefore be a relatively simple aid to shelter adaptation.”

A 2025 review in Veterinary Evidence looked at five randomised controlled trials of hiding boxes in hospitalised cats. It says: “Four of the five studies showed moderate evidence that hiding boxes reduce fear and stress in cats.” The same review also says: “Among the three studies that recorded objective physiological stress measures (e.g., temperature, salivary cortisol), two studies showed no statistically significant stress reductions between the hiding box and control groups.”

Big Cats Are Wild Animals

Big Cat Rescue says: “Wild cats were never meant to be pets. They were meant to be wild.”

The Big Cat Public Safety Act became Public Law 117-243 on December 20, 2022. Section 3(e)(1) makes it unlawful, “Except as provided in paragraph (2),” for any person to “breed or possess” any prohibited wildlife species. The exceptions in paragraph (2) include “a wildlife sanctuary that cares for prohibited wildlife species” that meets the conditions the law lists, and an entity exhibiting animals to the public “under a Class C license from the Department of Agriculture” that meets the conditions the law lists.

FAQ

How much space do big cats need?

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo says a tiger’s range “is determined by the availability of prey.” In a study of six radio-collared tigers in the Sundarban mangrove forests of India, the average home range was 56.4 km² for resident females and 110 km² for males (Naha and colleagues, PLoS ONE, 2016). For cheetahs, the National Zoo says male territories are “usually five to 10 square miles (13 to 26 square kilometers) although it may extend up to 50 square miles (130 square kilometers),” and that female home ranges “can be from 322 to 370 square miles (833 to 958 square kilometers).” Taken together, these measured ranges run from tens to hundreds of kilometers squared.

Are big cats pack animals?

It depends on the cat. The National Zoo says: “Lions are the world’s most social felines. They live in groups of related females, called prides, which may comprise several to as many as 40 individuals, including adults, sub-adults (between the ages of 2 and 4) and cubs, plus one or more resident males.” Of tigers it says: “Tigers in the wild are thought to be solitary creatures, except when mating or raising young.” Of cheetahs it says: “Adult females are solitary, while adult males are not,” and “A coalition is usually made up of two to three littermates and is a very tightly bonded group.”

Why are big cats called big cats?

The Britannica Dictionary defines a big cat as “a large wild animal of the cat family,” with the example “lions, tigers, leopards, and other big cats.” The National Zoo says tigers are “among the largest cats in the world.”

Sources

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