What cats roar?

Only 4 living cat species can roar: the lion, tiger, leopard, and jaguar.

Roaring is made possible by a special two-piece hyoid bone in the throat. All of the non-roaring cats like the common house cats have a one-piece hyoid bone.

This one-piece hyoid bone is also the reason why smaller cats are able to purr while the largest species conventionally can not.

However, felids of the Panthera genus (Tiger, Lion, Jaguar and Leopard) also produce sounds similar to purring, but only when exhaling.