Why do tigers roar

Try This! Explore More. Tigers have a roaring good time. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. These cats are hyped for stripes. The feline has a big-time appetite. They have a lot in common with your cat. Tigers are splashy. Read this next. Tigers have square-mile territories—a big chunk of land to scour for footprints or other signs of the big cats. Camera traps, with their bright flash, can also be problematic.

Poachers, who sell tiger parts on the black market can easily find and steal them. And they can even help park rangers and law enforcement detect the presence of poachers. The team is also examining whether tiger vocalizations can be used to establish family lineage by placing sound meters in the enclosures of an extended family of tigers in zoos scattered around the USA—the family's matriarch, Mai, was a three-legged, Malayan tiger that lived at the Omaha Zoo.

Research suggests that male tigers willingly share their prey with female tigers that have had their cubs, related males, and—as long as they recognize their scents—even males that have been in the area before.

Are tigers simply sniffing out pheromones, or are they hearing a family-specific call? Something went wrong. Please email webmaster sierraclub. By signing up, you are opting in to receive periodic communications from the Sierra Club. Cherese Cobb is a professional writer and photographer from Maryville, Tennessee. When she's not pinning copy for newspapers, blogs, and magazines, she splits her time between family, nature, and cat-worship, and chugs coffee to survive all three.

Photos courtesy of Emily Ferlemann. Its vocal cords lack an all-important layer of fatty, elasticated tissue, which, in other big cats, gives the vocalisations an uneven rumble that emerges as a roar. Some scientists therefore argue that the snow leopard deserves its own genus: Uncia.

Email your question to wildquestions immediate. Home Animal Facts Mammals Why can only big cats roar? Roaring tiger.