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[Uzu Bash]

This is an important adaptation for predators, as it wards off competitors to spare the energy expense of conflict. They would automatically roar when they detect potential encroachment on territory they have claimed, and if crossing the path of a potentially hostile creature.

Animals also roar to communicate to others that they are not prey, and to cow another of their kind into submission. Beast men should be able to similarly use their roar socially. It may be used to warn people around them when they become enraged, or it may be directed at an individual to express intense displeasure with them. Either way, it would have a high intimidation factor. It would probably be at least as deleterious on burglars' morale as cocking a shotgun.

[Vattic]

Could be tied to a new SOUND application token or just use ALERT. Would like some new triggers for sound production.

[Deboche]

This makes sense. If I'm not mistakened the Siberian Tiger roars only after making a kill. I don't know why they'd do that but maybe it's to warn other tigers in the area so they can share.

But this also applies to other animals, they all communicate. Birds make noise constantly, dogs bark for all sorts of reasons and so on.

Perhaps the sound of birds could be a warning when it starts and stops rather than a constant reminder.

You leave a city, go towards a forest and get "You hear birds in the distance."; after you enter the forest, "Birds chirp loudly all around you."; and when you approach a camp or some dangerous creature you get "The forest here is eerily silent.".

[IndigoFenix]

You can mod this pretty easily, actually; an interaction with a personality change effect on the target (reducing COURAGE, for instance) should do the trick.

But I have been interested in implementing proper animal communication for a while.  Animals might not generally propagate complex information through a population using rumor the way humans do, but they can certainly communicate intentions (warning, hostility, alert, submission, attraction) to other members of their own species, and in many cases others as well.

It's pretty unrealistic that you can sneak up on a herd of animals and they all notice you individually; as long as you're behind one of them they won't try to flee even if the rest of the herd is clearly running away.  In real life, animals passively or actively alert each other when they spot a predator; that's one of the main reason prey animals travel in groups in the first place.

[Uzu Bash]

This makes sense. If I'm not mistakened the Siberian Tiger roars only after making a kill. I don't know why they'd do that but maybe it's to warn other tigers in the area so they can share.

Are Siberian Tigers social, do they live in pack communities? If not, then they would be warning other predators away from their kill, but scavengers would also be alerted to come get the leftovers.

Predators tend to have sensitive hearing, so a roar at close range is especially uncomfortable to them. Depending on other social factors and skills, this may be demoralizing to other predatory beast men, or they may respond to the irritation as a personal attack.

[Dirst]

Setting aside specific adaptations, the volume and pitch of a roar make a reasonably accurate signal of size and strength.  Once an actual encounter begins, DF creatures are fully informed about the opponent's stats... But a roar SOUND/HABIT could broadcast one's size, strength, and some tags like PRONE_TO_RAGE, in order to trigger a fight-or-flight decision in everyone around them even before a proper encounter started.

Social animals also ought to be able raise an alarm, for example whenever a fight-or-flight decision is made.

[Uzu Bash]

The smaller big cats actually have shrill roars that carry a lot further. In their case I don't think it's to sound bigger, but to stake wider territory, and disorient competitors nearby with hearing damage. They're also more solitary. Compare lions who may roar at others in their own community.

EDIT: Beastfolk don't get the humanoid races' spit interaction, but that's pretty childish anyway. Roaring in a characters' face would communicate that you mean business.