Jaguars spotted meowing in wild for first time

When you think of big cats - such as lions, tigers and leopards - living in the wild, you probably picture them walking around confidently and roaring loudly.

So you can imagine how surprised a team of scientists were recently, to discover a number of jaguars... meowing.

The footage was captured through cameras which researchers had placed in a national park in south-eastern Brazil.

Recordings showed females and their cubs using high-pitched meows, similar to those typically produced by domestic cats.

An international group of scientists - including the University of Salford in the UK, WWF Brazil and researchers at the Iguaçu Jaguars' Project - were behind the discovery.

They gathered the unique sounds and images by setting up monitoring cameras in various spots across the Iguaçu National Park in Brazil.

Recordings showed female jaguars calling their cubs with meow-like sounds, with two separate females spotted 'meowing.'

The cubs also meowed in return to locate their mother.

The findings surprised experts as many big cats such as lions and tigers are unable to meow due to the structure of their windpipe and vocal box.

According to the team, the sounds were high-pitched, sharp and brief and therefore sounded similar to meows usually produced by domestic cats.

They added that their results suggest that mother and baby jaguars may use meow-like sounds in communication.

Dr Marina Duarte, from the University of Salford, explained: "As far as we know this is the first time that jaguars have been recorded using this kind of communication, which we are incredibly excited about.

"This research really deepens our knowledge of how big cats can communicate. It does sound very cute to our ears!"