Big cats of the Genera Panthera and Puma, in order of size tigers (Panthera tigris Linnaeus, 1758), lions (Panthera leo Linnaeus, 1758), jaguars (Panthera onca Linnaeus, 1758), cougars (Puma concolor Linnaeus, 1771), leopards (Panthera pardus Linnaeus, 1758), and snow leopards (Panthera uncia Schreber, 1775) are large obligate carnivores, perceived as potentially dangerous (to humans, livestock and companion animals), charismatic, and even charming animals. These species are considered in this study due to their powerful, charismatic status in the human psyche, their strong involvement in human-animal conflicts, their need for large, pristine habitats, their recent adaptive abilities leading to their incursions into human habitats, and in contrast to large, carnivorous birds and large mammal herbivores, their threat to human life through attacks and even consumption of humans, large domestic animals and livestock. Currently, the global status of big cats depends almost entirely on human conservation efforts. There are areas of strong protection, rarity, controversial settlement by local and more powerful human interests, and ongoing local extirpation or even national extinction of big cats. Understanding the status of big cats from the flexible perspective of conservation biogeography, which combines natural ecological and human dimensions as well as spatial and temporal aspects, is crucial for formulating conservation policy and management. This chapter provides a background for the next chapter by examining the issues of ecological conservation, the ‘biogeography’ in conservation biogeography, while the next chapter examines the human dimensions of conservation biogeography. It is concluded that the ecological and conservation biogeographic background questions are important for the further study of political ecology and psychology and that these approaches provide a concise explanatory framework for understanding the human dimensions of conservation biogeography. This contributes to conservation policy and protected area management.