Why lions roar and cats meow

LONDON - Scientists have found that the low roar of a lion, or the meow of a wildcat, has more to do with where a cat lives than its size.

Dr Gustav Peters and Dr Marcell Peters at the Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum in Bonn, Germany, analysed the calls of 27 cat species, investigating how they vary in habitats from open sandy deserts to thickly planted jungles.

According to the BBC, cat species that live in more open types of habitat, such as lions and sand cats, have deeper calls, they found.

While those living in dense habitats, such as wildcats, clouded leopards and the little known marbled cat, communicate at a higher pitch, the researchers found.

But that does not explain why lions roar so deeply, for instance. One suggestion is that big cats simply produce sounds at a lower frequency but when the researchers took into account the genetic heritage of each species studied, they found body weight has no effect on the dominant frequencies of its call.

The findings are published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. (ANI)