Four big cats can roar, but the snow leopard lacks the vocal equipment
A lion's roar can carry 8 to 10 kilometres on a good night, thanks to the longest larynx of any cat. Its relatives the tiger, leopard and jaguar roar too. The snow leopard shares the same flexible throat bones, yet stays silent on that front because it lacks one crucial pad of tissue.
Strictly, big cat means the five living members of the genus Panthera: tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard and snow leopard. More loosely it covers any large feline, including cheetahs and cougars, which actually belong to the other main branch of the cat family alongside house cats. The ancestors of most big cats split from that branch roughly 6.37 million years ago. Genetic work in 2010 found that the tiger's closest relative is the snow leopard, while the lion, leopard and jaguar form a separate cluster.
Roaring depends on an elongated larynx hung from a chain of small bones. Inside, thick pads of collagen and elastic fibre let the vocal folds stretch and vibrate at a low natural frequency. All five Panthera species share the elongated hyoid, but the snow leopard has no large fibro-elastic pad, so it cannot produce a true roar.
Size varies hugely. Adult snow leopards usually weigh 22 to 55 kilograms. Male lions typically come in at 150 to 250 kilograms, and male tigers range from 100 to 306, with exceptional captive animals near 450. A lion and tiger hybrid, the liger, can outgrow both parents; one named Nook reportedly passed 550 kilograms.
As apex predators with no natural enemies, big cats are still in trouble. The IUCN lists the lion, leopard, snow leopard and cheetah as Vulnerable, the tiger as Endangered and the jaguar as Near Threatened, and every species is declining, mainly through habitat loss and poaching. Rules on keeping them vary: Denmark, Thailand and India ban private ownership outright, while in the United States the Captive Wildlife Safety Act of 2003 restricts moving them between states, and genuine sanctuaries must avoid commercial trade and forbid public contact.
Source: Big cat
