![]() ![]() Are those screams warning signs for us to get out of their territory? Like the wolf's howl, these cougar noises serve as forms of long-distance communication. The cougar scream is a rare, high-pitched noise that rips through the wilderness air and causes hikers to freeze in place. Small cats can meow, hiss and growl all day, but that solid hyoid prevents them from roaring like the MGM lion.Īs small cats with solid hyoids, cougars can't produce a deep roar, but females can out-scream a 2-year-old child who just discovered a heart-pounding fear of clowns at the circus. Instead of solid hyoids, large cats have flexible cartilage that can vibrate in that oral space, allowing lions and other big cats to roar. The solid hyoid attaches to the windpipe and larynx and helps produce the animal's vocalizations. Underneath a small cat's tongue is a bone called the solid hyoid. Cougars received the designation because of internal anatomy rather than external. While these dimensions sound awfully large to be lumped into the same category as your pet kitty, biologists didn't flub the cougar classification. ![]() Their size is comparable to leopards, with adult males weighing around 140 pounds (63.5 kilograms) and measuring 8 feet (2.4 meters) long from tail to nose. Surprisingly, cougars are technically small cats, members of the same group as domesticated cats. Outside of zoos, you won't find any big cat species, such as lions, tigers, jaguars and leopards, roaming the countryside. The cougar is the largest native cat in North America. ![]()
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