I once read a SF short story in the 80's, but I can't remember either the name nor the author. The protagonists are two alien anthropologists (one shaped like a tiger, the other like a dragon, I think) intent on secretly studying two Terran explorers. The Terrans (dubbed "the big one" and "the small one") we soon learn are a couple and at one point they get in some kind of danger.
The two alien anthropologists decide to save them and manage to do so without revealing themselves, thus also "saving" their study.
Answer
"The Odd Ones", a novelette by Gordon R. Dickson; first published in If, February 1955, available at the Internet Archive. You may have read it in one of these collections. (This old question is perhaps asking about the same story.)
The protagonists are two alien anthropologists
The two aliens were philosophical engineers, an occupation it is hard to explain in human terms.
(one shaped like a tiger, the other like a dragon, I think)
The Snorap strongly resembled a very fat and sleepy lizard about ten feet in length—a sort of unterrifying, overstuffed dragon of the kind who would prefer a pleasant nap in a soft chair to eating maidens, any day in the week. His hide was heavy and dark and ridged like armor-plating.
The Lut, on the other hand, was built more on the model of an Earthly tiger, except that he was longer—being fully as long as the Snorap—and thicker, with an almost perfectly round body, rather like a big sewer main. He was tailless, his head was big and flat of face, and he possessed an enormous jaw which could crunch boulders like hard candy. His eyes had a fierce green glint to them and he was covered with very fine, but incredibly tough, small glassy scales which would have permitted him to take an acid shower every morning and never notice it at all. But in spite of his appearance, he was just as civilized, just as intelligent, and just as much a gentleman as the Snorap, which put them both, as a matter of fact, several notches above the two humans they were watching, in all those respects.
intent on secretly studying two Terran explorers.
These two, the Snorap and the Lut, had discovered this world they were on to be a new one, not heretofore checked, and they had just spent the last eighty years or so in going over it. There own ship—which was more of a space-sled than a ship, being completely open, except for an energy shield for meteor protection—was clear on the other side of the planet, they having wandered away from it completely in the past half-century of philosophy-testing. Now they had just stumbled on a pair of human immigrants. These soft little bipeds were a new experience to the Snorap and the Lut, neither of their races having encountered the type before; and they sat in the obscurity of the vegetation that hemmed the little clearing where the human ship had landed, conversing in something that was not verbal speech, sign language, nor telepathy, but a mixture of all three—and they marveled.
The Terrans (dubbed "the big one" and "the small one") we soon learn are a couple
"They are almost identical, aren't they?" said the Snorap. "However, if you take the trouble to figure it out, you'll notice one has a slightly greater mass than the other. I call them the Greater Biped Colonist and the Lesser Biped Colonist. Great and Less for short. That's Great going around the corner of the motor building right now. And Less is still digging."
and at one point they get in some kind of danger.
From the dome, Great and Less came tumbling. Less, half asleep and reeling with fatigue. Great cursing and trying to arm the weapon he carried—the gun the Snorap and Lut had seen him use when he tried to drive away the night predators on the fields. Finally dropping on one knee he fired at the monster. A puff of dust rose from behind the creature's heavy shoulder, and it turned to charge the human.
The two alien anthropologists decide to save them
The Lut shot from the ground like a projectile and met it head to head. There was a sound like a tree breaking in a high wind. The heavy bone that had warded off the missile from Great's gun, gave like cardboard before the fantastic stuff of which Lut's body was constructed. The creature tumbled backwards, lay for a moment, then slowly struggled to its feet and reeled off like something half-conscious. Its huge forehead was caved in and dark fluid dripped from it and dropped on the ground as it went.
"It will live," said the Lut, looking after it.
and manage to do so without revealing themselves, thus also "saving" their study.
No, they introduce themselves to the Terrans:
"Who—who are you?" asked Great at last.
"We," said the Lut, "are individual members of two old and respected races, from elsewhere than this system. You might refer to me as a Lut and to my friend as a Snorap. And you call yourselves—"
The may laughed a little wildly. Exchanging introductions with two nightmare beings after a hair-breadth escape from death, has a tendency to make anyone a bit hysterical.
"We're humans," he said. "I'm Joe Parner. This is my wife, Gela."
"What is a wife?" asked the Lut.
"Why—a wife—" answered the human in astonishment. "I'm a man, she's a woman. Male—female—"
"You mean," demanded the Lut, "that your race is bisexual?"
"Of course," answered the man. "Isn't everything? Aren't you—" He broke off and stared at them. "You mean it's not usual?"
The Lut turned hiis head slowly and looked at the Snorap, who sat down in the dust.
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