What is making that NOISE?

Yes, I think it’s a fox.
I can’t believe I’m the only one to post this:

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When I heard an ungodly scream last August I followed it down the road a bit - didn’t get close but saw two eyes reflecting my light in the distance, and the size matched fox. I did some googling and what I’d heard matched a “vixen scream.”

In tracking that down, I found a site which mentioned the tendency to (incorrectly) blame fishers for such sounds, and it had some sample fisher sounds - which didn’t sound at all scary or blood-curdling.

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Interesting! I’m fairly sure I’ve heard one in person. There’s a video shot in a zoo of a fisher talking & it sounds so bizarre it made my adrenaline rush :exploding_head: But who knows. They dub a red-tailed hawk’s scream for bald eagles in movies a lot as the latter’s voice doesn’t match their majestic image :no_mouth: (Their actual voice sounds like a seagull’s, imo.)

Eta: This is the video

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Soon after moving into this house with a large pond in the back, I heard something at night that sounded like a damn dinosaur, really weird, creepy, and big. Turns out it was a couple of great blue herons.

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I was going to suggest the “Vixen Scream”, but someone beat me to it. Weird and wonderful isn’t it?

The first time I volunteered at the Myopia Hunt hunter pace, I was posted at the checkpoint midway through. We were getting told by some participants that there “was a problem with a horse in the woods.” The problem was a fisher cat that had dropped out of a tree onto a horse and spooked it really badly. IIRC the rider fell off (and this was long enough ago that it’s possible she had dropped out from her team…)

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We have tons of coyotes and tons of foxes in my suburban neighbourhood, so they can definitely coexist! I hear this sound at night in the summer but didn’t know what it was. Always thought it was a rabbit getting killed or some weird owl lol

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Raccoon fights definitely sound like large cats killing each other. Especially when they are fighting on the roof directly above your bedroom at 3am. Ask me how I know…

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Hmm, the fisher in that video does sound striking as I sit here watching.

I strongly suspect in August, having just heard the vixen scream (over and over and over) had rather raised the bar on what qualified as unearthly/ungodly that night!

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Fisher are a little scary in general :scream:Driving home from the barn at dusk last week, this bizarre-looking shape sort of rolled down the easement & across the gravel road right in front of our car. My first though was “Argh, not fisher cats!” Then I heard the squeaking noises the blob was making & realized it was a pair of river otters!

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PeteyPie- THANK YOU- I had forgotten that video!

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When I was a little tyke, I really pestered my parents about the sounds animals made. Rabbit stumped them. After repeated pestering on my part, they finally came up with/made up “miff-miff.” Which then for decades became the sound any toy plush rabbit made for, say, puppies in the family, kids in the next generation, etc. Maybe I should write a song! lol – NOT.

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Domesticated rabbits honk, grunt & occasionally growl. Or in the case of our pet rabbit, frequently growl! I never knew this until we got her. It’s mildly terrifying in a Monty Python kind of way :rofl:

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DH and I had a pet Dutch rabbit some years back – though I know they can scream when attacked, I never heard our Kenobi make any noise that I can recall. I think hearing a rabbit growl would indeed be Monty Python scary!

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Our bunny is a tiny Dwarf Netherland who probably weighs all of 2.5 lbs. The cats are all terrified of her. Even the failed barn cat, who actually chases wild rabbits :astonished:

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As they say, is not the size but the bite. :wink:

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Indeed! When she was a baby, she set a strict offensive precedence. She still crashes into them with her teeth sometimes. She’s also growled & stomped on my foot a few times when I’ve caught her off guard. The killer rabbit from Monty Python definitely had roots in reality :exploding_head:

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When I was a child, my godmother gave me a failed lab rabbit for my birthday- he was too fierce to let the lab techs draw blood. We named him Mr McGregor, and yes, he was fierce. He attacked, bit, kicked, scratched and punched as well as growling. He was NOT pet material. The dogs and cat were terrified of him. He lived a year in our TV room and hollowed out the underside of the couch for a den. In the spring, my parents said they had found a great home for him at a rabbit breeding farm. Umm, sure. I don’t think any of us really believed this, but we were glad to see him go. I have never really warmed to rabbits since.

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In the farm in the mountains, above the stable, when I was a little kid, we had a room bedded on hay and that was the rabbit room.
Once I was older one day they were all gone.

The room had about four/five bigger wire crates on stilts, where they would give birth and care for the little rabbits for a while.
After weaning they grew up loose running around the room and burying in the hay.
I was maybe 5 and in charge of feeding and watering the rabbits and spent time also playing with them.
Some sure have a little bit of a wild terror disposition, they just as much let you pick them up one time, next time you are toast if you even get close.
I was never to mess with the big ones in the cages, they were very defensive of their space.
An adult would let one at the time out to run around for a while.

As the little rabbits got a certain size I was told they took them to a local hotel/restaurant.
It was a fancy place, we never went there.
For years I thought the rabbits were taken there for kids staying in the hotel to play with them.
Once older, I realized they were dinner! :anguished:

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I"d never been big on them until BeeBon came along. She’s cute, as terrifying as she sounds! I like these oat bowls from Daily Harvest for breakfast. She & I have a ritual where when I go to wake the kids up, I bring her breakfast. Then, she comes out in the hallway & plays with me & eats blueberries from my oat bowl off the spoon. Rabbits like to play by flipping things. Sometimes she & I play cards with an old deck I have just for her. She snatches cards out of my hand & loves when i toss a handful in her direction; she flips them all. It’s hysterical.

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