January 6, 2024, 7:21 am | Read time: 4 minutes
The meowing of our cats has primarily developed through living with humans. However, they also naturally use it to communicate with each other. But can big cats like tigers or lions meow too? PETBOOK editor and behavioral biologist Saskia Schneider explored this question.
Dogs bark and cats meow. Both forms of communication have primarily developed through living with humans. In nature, kittens use these sounds to call for their mother. Later, adult cats rarely meow—unless they live with humans. Humans respond well to this form of communication. But what about big cats? Can they meow too? After all, the wild relatives of our dogs—wolves—can’t really bark.
Big Cats Roar, Cats Meow?
Most people think of roaring when they hear sounds from big cats like tigers or lions. But did you know that not all big cats can roar?
The cat family, known as Felidae, is divided into two groups:
- The big cats, Pantherinae, which include lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, snow leopards, and clouded leopards, and the
- Felinae, which includes all other cats like cheetahs, pumas, lynxes, and ocelots, as well as the domestic cat.
Only the members of the Pantherinae can truly roar. They produce the sound using an elastic band called the epihyoid.
Domestic cats and wild cats from the Felinae subfamily, like the cheetah, have a bony element instead, which produces both purring and meowing sounds. These cats’ throats also contain a strong hyoid bone that encloses their larynx near the skull base and shortens their vocal cords, enabling them to meow and purr.
Also interesting: How do cats purr?
Why Do Cats Meow?
This doesn’t mean that big cats like tigers or leopards can’t produce meow-like sounds. They also have vocal cords that allow them to produce various sounds besides roaring. These sounds are mainly used for communication over long distances, such as finding potential mates.
Lions, the only cat species that live in social groups, have a special group call to maintain contact with family members over distances. However, this sounds less like a meow and more like a bull bellowing.
The sounds of tigers are closer to meowing but much deeper. In contrast, the noises made by cheetahs or pumas can clearly be interpreted as meows.
In this video, you can listen to the various sounds of big cats:
Big Cats Living in Forests Meow Higher
Not only the size of the cats and their anatomy play a role in meowing, but also their habitat. Biologists Gustav Peters and Marcell Peters from the Zoological Research Museum in Bonn found that cats living in open habitats like the African savanna tended to communicate with deep calls. In contrast, cats like the clouded leopard, living in forested habitats, had high-pitched calls.
The scientists couldn’t really explain this, as high-frequency sounds are generally more easily disrupted by vegetation in forests, while low-frequency sounds don’t travel as well in open spaces due to air turbulence. Why cat calls seem to have developed so oppositely needs further investigation.
Big Cats Also Use Meowing with Humans
Our domestic cats aren’t the only members of the Felidae that can meow. Theoretically, all big cats can produce sounds with their voices that more or less resemble a meow but serve the same function: finding mates and contacting conspecifics, especially mother animals.
In living with humans, our domestic cats have learned that they can communicate with us through meowing. But larger cats also seem capable of this. Employees of the Big Cat Rescue organization in Tampa, Florida, reported a very friendly puma that greeted its caretaker with a loud purr and responded with meows when spoken to.
Sources
- Peters, G., Peter, M. K. (2010) Long-distance call evolution in the Felidae: effects of body weight, habitat, and phylogeny. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 101, 487–500
- Weissengruber, G. E., Forstenpointner, G., Peters, M. K. (2010) Hyoid apparatus and larynx in the lion (Panthera leo), jaguar (Panthera onca), tiger (Panthera tigris), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and domestic cat (Felis silvestris f. c.). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (2010)
Fascinating Facts About the Little-Known Wildcat Jaguarundi
Leopard or Jaguar? How to Tell the Spotted Wild Cats Apart
Hardly anyone knows these 16 wild cats
Additional Sources
- laughingsquid.com, “Why Some Kitties Meow and Others Roar” (accessed Jan. 4, 2024)
- smithsonianmag.com, “Why Some Kitties Meow and Others Roar” (accessed Jan. 4, 2024)