Coyote feeding or Bobcat?

[HELLSING]

Ok guys,

maybe someone with a little more knowledge on outdoors/animals (I have none) can help me.

late last night, around 10pm, my wife and I decided to walk the dogs around our local park. The park is a fairly wooded area with trails that lead out to VERY wooded areas. Anyhow, we walked from our house to the park which is about 10 minutes away.

We got halfway around the park and this..... god awful ... scream is the best way I could put it, came out of the woods about 60 yards in front of us. The dogs stopped and started growling but didn't go forward. My wife and I both stopped and turned on our flashlights looking for a woman because neither of us have heard this sound before and we immediately thought the worst. Well my wife got freaked out because the sound was moving closer and I didn't have my gun.

We power walked back home and tried to figure out what it was. At first I thought it was a few coyotes that maybe caught something. Then a friend said that a bobcat makes those type of noises too. I have no idea what it was, but it was loud, and lasted a good minute.

Anyone have any knowledge on this? I'm totally lost.

 

[arjay]

Fox in heat?

 

[5Wire]

Probably a fox. Don't know about it being in heat.

 

[Texas Star]

I think a bobcat or cougar is most likely. But foxes can be aggressive, too. I almost had to shoot one gray fox. I think he was being territorial.

And I think what you heard was either territorial or a mating call.

Whatever it was was big enough and tough enough not to be scared of your dogs, and I think it was feline.
Start carrying your gun.

Even a loose domestic dog can give you real grief, let alone a wild one. But that call sounds more like a cat in heat or in anger.

I wouldn't rule out a cougar if the area will sustain one. They'll come right into the outskirts of Los Angeles. I don't know how rural you are.

Do you have raccoons? They make squealing sounds, I think, and can be dangerous. I've seen them along creekbeds at night in what may be family packs.

 

[sourdough44]

Just running the numbers, a raccoon is a high possibility. They do make some crazy screams, they are abundant in suburban locations. The Bobcat could be around, but much lower numbers & usually seek to avoid people. I'd consider the coyote & fox much lower probables.

I've been out deer hunting, seen & heard coons making a ruckus, & thought it could easily give a person a scare if they didn't know.

 

[5-Shot]

The scream of a rabbit caught by a predator can be pretty alarming if you don't know what it is. That's my guess. I bet you could google up a dying rabbit game call and hear one.

Ed

 

[pinduck]

I would think a fox,also.

 

[bamabiker]

Rosie O'Donnell mating with bigfoot. You decide which one was screaming.

 

[Cocked & Locked]

Bobcat gets my vote...but not feeding

 

[jlrhiner]

If you have never heard a dying rabbit, well, police have been called to murder scenes after someone hears it for the first time. Urban area, I'd go with a rabbit.

 

[HAWKEYE10]

Rosie O'Donnell mating with bigfoot. You decide which one was screaming.

That would be bigfoot screaming when he woke up the next mourning and saw Rosie next to him. Don

 

[LittleCooner]

I vote Bobcat without any additional information. They can make some hair raising sounds at times. Late at night- good chance that cat was having dinner, they are 98% nocturnal, so this would have been a great "time of day" to encounter one dinning on the daily meal. Most of the other animals would have run away. You said you could hear it in the leaves, etc and the dogs decided they wanted no part of this creature. And it could have been a cougar, they are beginning to show up more and more here in Alabama.

 

[pownal55]

If you have Fishers in your area I bet it was that. The most blood-curdling scream you ever heard.

 

[Arik]

I have a small wooded area behind my house (and i do mean small. 25 yard long or so). We dont have coyotes or bobcats but in the spring time when i sleep with the windows open i occasionally get woken up in the middle of the night by some god awful screams. I have seen a fox or two in my area so it might be them or a rabbit getting caught (do rabbits scream?). I always wanted to know what it was!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[Faulkner]

You can pretty much determine a coyote noise as coming from a coyote.

I've lived "out in the country" pretty much my whole life and I have seen many and killed a few bobcats. I don't know that I've ever heard one make a noise so I don't know what they sound like.

I rabbit's death squeal can be pretty unnerving the first time you hear one up close.

 

[Brian41]

We got woke up in the middle of the night last summer by an aweful screaming. Got out of bed and looked out the window to see a fox standing there with a rabbit in his mouth. My wife had never heard a rabbit scream before and could hardly believe they could sound like that.

 

[PA Reb]

I believe what you heard was the "screech" of an Eastern Screech Owl. They are heard alot near or at dusk, this bird is rather small but can put a chill up your spine if you've never heard it before. Go to this page > Eastern Screech-Owl, Sounds, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology and scroll down to the very last recording. Turn your volume up before you hit play to enhance it. The screech itself is right at the start and can last alot longer than what this recording has. Let us know if this might be what your heard.

 

[shouldazagged]

Yes, rabbits scream when caught and being munched. Any of the four-legged suspects mentioned could be your screamer, though I think the mountain lion is the least likely by far.

Here's another thought, but not a likely one: many years ago I lived in a suburban area near a tree nursery. At night the lady I was living with and I would hear the most awful screams sometimes. Sounded like a woman being tortured, and would turn your blood to sherbet until you learned what it was.

The people who owned the nursery kept pea fowl. Their screams, either territorial or lustful, sounded incredibly human. We learned that the police were really sick of being called to help non-existent damsels in distress. And for some reasons, the damned birds like to shriek at night, like a night-shift rooster I knew that used to crow at sunset...

 

[Rangerpat]

Spring is in the air and it's that time of year for "love" in the animal world, you may have heard a bobcat or fox in-heat.

 

[truckemup97]

Here's another thought, but not a likely one: many years ago I lived in a suburban area near a tree nursery. At night the lady I was living with and I would hear the most awful screams sometimes. Sounded like a woman being tortured, and would turn your blood to sherbet until you learned what it was.

The people who owned the nursery kept pea fowl. Their screams, either territorial or lustful, sounded incredibly human. We learned that the police were really sick of being called to help non-existent damsels in distress. And for some reasons, the damned birds like to shriek at night, like a night-shift rooster I knew that used to crow at sunset...

This. When you hear it you will swear that there is a woman being horribly tortured somewhere nearby.