Roaring Lion Against the Sun

About this drawing

A roaring lion makes one of the loudest sounds of any land animal, and in good conditions it carries as far as five miles. More than an immediate threat, that voice is a long-range announcement.

Only a few cats can roar: the lion, tiger, leopard and jaguar. Two details of their anatomy explain why. Their vocal cords have a special shape that lets them vibrate at low frequencies with little effort, and the hyoid bone supporting the voice box is partly joined by a stretchy ligament, which makes it more flexible. The result is a very deep tone that travels well across open ground.

Roars serve several purposes. Lions use them to announce that a territory is occupied, and neighbors can gauge how many animals are on the other side of the border. Lionesses call to one another to regroup. Experiments with recorded calls have shown that groups weigh whether to approach intruders based on how many voices they hear.

Most roaring happens between dusk and dawn. A session opens with long moans, climbs to full-power roars and ends with a series of short huffs. When several lions join in, the chorus makes the group sound even larger and tougher.

• lion
• roar
• sun
• big cats