Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash " />Two lions resting on grass. When we think of lions, we think of that magnificent roar. A boom of sound that warns predators of their fearsome presence. However, according to research published in Ecology and Evolution journal last month, lions actually have a second roar that nobody had identified until now, thanks to machine learning. This exciting discovery means that experts will have a greater understanding of the animal, and how many are in a particular area. Field recordings from Africa brought this to light ScienceNews explains: “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.” I think one of my cats makes a similar sound... For a long time, biologists have known the purpose of the roar; to attract mates, advertise territory and locate pride members. Roars were also always assumed to begin and end with a grunt. However, this research challenges these assumptions by decoding roars into component parts and, with the help of artificial intelligence trained to identify one lion’s roar from the next, conservation groups may be able to count and track lions by sound alone, limiting their direct intervention in lion’s territories. Speaking to ScienceNews, Jognathan Growcott, a conservation technologist and large carnivore biologist at the University of Exeter says: “If you can identify a lion by its roar, this could potentially be a tool to count the number of individuals within a landscape.” Such insights could prove especially valuable at a time of shrinking habitat and poaching pressures, when lions have vanished from more than 90 percent of their historic range, he adds. Exciting. Related... Turns Out, We Can't Read Our Dogs' Emotions All That Well 'There Are So Many Needing Help': Unsung Hero Has Fostered Over 500 Cats Why Do Cats Meow If Lions And Tigers Roar?