The thunderous roar of the MGM lion that has opened Hollywood films for nearly a century has conditioned us to hear the big cat’s call as a blunt declaration: a booming blast announcing power and presence.
But the real soundscape of a lion pride is far more intricate than that cinematic caricature, researchers report November 20 in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
Using field recordings from africa and machine learning techniques to analyse the acoustics, scientists found that African lions (Panthera leo) produce two distinct types of roars: the familiar, guttural one that anchors a roaring bout — and carries vocal signatures unique to each animal — plus an overlooked “intermediary” roar that is shorter and lower-pitched than the classic full-throated version.
According to Tanya Berger-Wolf, a computational ecologist at Ohio State University in columbus, this is one of the first clear demonstrations that machine learning can reliably interpret the vocalizations of a mammal.“It is a good example of bioacoustic monitoring beyond birds, amphibians and insects,” she says.
But becuase the recordings lacked behavioral context, scientists still can’t say why lions choose one roar type over the other — an open question that intrigues lion experts like Craig Packer of the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. “It would be interesting to have enough recordings in known contexts to know if lions roar more loudly in certain situations,” he says.
As for the MGM lion, his iconic roar contains no hidden intermediary for one simple reason: It doesn’t belong to a lion at all. In a bit of Hollywood movie magic, sound designers opted for something even more ferocious, Growcott says. “The MGM lion is actually a tiger.”
Keep reading