Howdy Jordi, Whether the phrase “prowl around” means here and there or near a specific place depends on whether the phrase is followed by a thing or location. For example: in “The tiger left his cave to go prowl around” the implication is that the tiger went hither and thither. If, in contrast I were to say “The bobcat prowled around the carcass”, then the implication is that the bobcat stalked around near the carcass specifically.

Agreed! I don't have too much to add to the comments/answers already here. In your examples, "around" is used to mean going to and fro without specifying a particular location. A similar example might be something like: "I'm tired of being cooped up inside! I just want to walk around for a bit." It would be similar to "dar una vuelta"; or to go for a walk. I agree with Jose's explanation using "recorrer" or "merodear." Another common example is "to run around," often used to refer to children or pets: "The dog needs to unleash some of this pent-up energy or we'll all go crazy! Let's go to the park and let him run around for a bit." However, as David said, if you add the location afterwards, "around" will refer to that object or place. I would add here that "around" in this case could mean a couple different things: 1 - to go about here and there in/near the location of the object, similar to the above examples but just more specific about where the action is happening. For example: "take a walk around the neighborhood" - "dar una vuelta / un paseo por el barrio" 2 - to go in a path along the perimetry of an object or place, encircling the object or place. For example: "the cat has a ritual of walking around its bowl of food three times before it eats." Hope this helps!

Gracias, Jose.

It would be like going through a specific area in the present tense, the cat is hanging around the house The cat is touring the house, it would be a synonym for loitering, touring.

Seria como recorrer un area en especifico en tiempo presente , el gato esta merodeando la casa El gato esta recorriendo la casa ,seria un sintonimo de merodear , recorrer .