This Is a Tiger's Version of a Meow

A house cat's meow and a tiger's closest equivalent come from the same basic idea, just built on a completely different scale. Small cats like house cats have a flexible hyoid bone in their throat that lets them meow and purr continuously. Big cats like tigers have a more rigid version of that same structure, which trades away the ability to meow or purr in exchange for producing a powerful roar instead. Researchers studying tiger vocalizations have identified a deep, moo-like call that appears to function as their version of a meow, just at a much lower pitch simply because of the tiger's size. Tigers also chuff, a separate friendly greeting sound made by pushing air through the nose with the mouth closed, often used to greet another tiger or a trusted caretaker. One researcher even found that tiger vocalizations, when viewed on a spectrogram, visually resemble the same striped pattern found on the animal's own coat.

Comments 100 nicholas_bell: When I worked at the zoo we would hear this thinking it was…