A version of this article appears in print on , Section C, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: An Angry Lion, but More Bore Than Roar. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe.

Lions roar to share information about their location, emotions, dominance, and territorial boundaries. Not all roars are angry roars, and sometimes they roar just to roar.

You know Welker’s got true talent if he can roar in a trashcan and sound exactly like a lion this way. Roaring in The Lion King was a very important element that shows Simba’s coming-of-age ...

Those lions, it is pointed out, have also been roaring for close to two millennia. But it is a conversational roar rather than a “ look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair ”.