A lion’s roar can travel eight kilometres across open savanna, but it is not only a war cry. It is also a long-distance family signal, helping scattered pride members find one another while warning rival lions that the territory is already claimed

A lion’s roar can travel eight kilometres across open savanna, but it is not only a war cry. It is also a long-distance family signal, helping scattered pride members find one another while warning rival lions that the territory is already claimed

Somewhere out in the dark, a sound arrives with no obvious source. It seems to come up through the ground as much as through the air, and it does not fade so much as roll away. Eight kilometres off, an animal has opened its mouth. A lion’s roar is one of the loudest noises any land mammal produces, and it is doing several jobs at once. It stakes a claim on ground. It keeps a scattered pride in contact across kilometres of grass. It also tells wh…