i found a previous post about bigfoot, where a lot of people mocked the idea.
i have been car camping in 4x4's for over 10 years. backpacking for 3 years.
has anyone ever heard animal sounds that they've never heard before while camping?

i was in uhwarrie national forest this past weekend and heard a sound i have never heard before in my life, nor do i hope to ever hear it again. after waking up and talking with friends about the sound we heard, we decided to do research for animals known to be in the area and see if we can match their sounds to the one we heard. so far we've found nothing that sounds like it online.

the only thing i've gained from this is curiosity.

please share your experiences if you've ever had any

So what did it sound like?

First time I heard a mountain lion I was terrified. Sounds like a woman screaming. Hard to go back to bed after that.

Edited by cobberman on 10/07/2012 00:40:17 MDT.

The mating call of a wombat.
I was camping by myself and the wombat was only a few feet from my tent .
Weird the first time ...

I think the strangest animal cry I've ever heard was while I was sleeping at a tent camp in Kenya. It was the loudest, and most shrill sound, just eerie--it came from a small tree hyrax, which was in a tree not far away. Little critter, big sound.

Camping in a strange pile of huge boulders (Hanging Rock, Victoria) one night. Terrible screams from above us in the dark. One of those lovely fluffy cuddly koala bears irritated at us being there.

Sitting at home (farm) one evening. Noises down the valley. No worries. An hour later, knock-knock at the door. Two policemen investigating a report about a domestic dispute somewhere in the vicinity: could we help locate it? They were a bit reluctant to believe us when we told them it was just a vixen (female fox) calling for her mate.

Camping in dark forest on a stormy night. Weird high-pitched noise at intervals, sort of a wail or a squeal. Just one smooth-barked tree rubbing against another in the wind.

Camped by a river with lots of rapids. Faint voices heard late, in the distance. Someone in distress? Nope, just our ears playing tricks with the white noise from the rapids.

Cheers

Whenever I camp by running water, I feel like I am hearing distant voices all day long.

Another sort of weird noise here is camping in a somewhat remote area and hearing a chainsaw or a nail gun operated nearby.
Lyrebirds are very good a mimicking noses like that...
(they do that to impress the female...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeQjkQpeJwY
from around the 2 min mark he is imitating other birds ..then he will repeat his repertoire

more sounds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAwiFMKPHmY&feature=fvwrel

Ryan,

I have spent many a night sharing the night with screech owls, great horned owls, spotted and barred owls, fox screams, coyote yells, and elk bugles.They have alarmed my fear factor and heightened my natural sense of curiousity. Also drunk homo sapiens from near and afar make a variety of unintelligible sounds. Check out this site to hear a few of the sounds.Also if you are seriously considering that "Bigfoot" is a real please go read a book about mammals or primates.

Hoot

http://sasquatchsearch.tripod.com/sounds.htm

Was taking a break below Potluck pass a few weeks ago on the Sierra High Route and not just one Coyote but a whole pack howling. Though they were eying us up for diner !

In July I was hiking in the Pecos Wilderness. I was hearing what sounded like sea gulls only to find out later that it was baby elk. We hiked through a valley where there were a couple hundred of them.

thanks for all the replies

so far i've found sounds and calls for the following animals:
black bear
brown bear
mountain lion
bob cat
elk
deer
and various owls

so far i have found nothing matching the scream, it lasted for about 30 seconds was multitoned and very loud, my initial discription to a friend was a variation of a cat high pitched scream ending with and owl kind of sound with varying tones in the end.

and i will say i hope to live long enough to hear all the drunk people yell on youtube, but havent wasted my time listening to them yet.

any ideas on animals known to be in the southeast that i have yet to look for?

i am in no way saying i heard bigfoot, i tried to make that clear in the original post to try and avoid being critisized. what i am saying is i heard something i've never heard before. while some may automatically jump to bigfoot, i am not doing that.


thank you,
Ryan

When hiking in the South Warner Wilderness at 8,000 feet, It was getting dark and I suddenly started hearing a massive and loud chorus of moo's and baaa's. It sounded like there were a hundred cows and a hundred goats down the mountain in the valley/creek drainage. Some herder must have brought his animals all the way into that wilderness area. This place was very remote and I didn't see any other people. I never did spot the animals.

Besides the geology being different than the Sierra, I find the Lassen Volcanic NP and ajoining Caribou Wilderness sending out noises in the night of critters I have no idea what they are.
Duane

when I was in the Gila I heard some really strange (and slightly unnerving :))"shrieking", I later identified the noise as a juvenile great horned owl- basically shrieking to demand food

On a recent trip with my son's cub scouts, a raccoon stole an entire backpack out of some lady's bunk. I'd never heard shouts and screams like that before :-)

"I'd never heard shouts and screams like that before :-)"

From the lady or the raccoon?

Edited by scottbentz on 10/09/2012 21:54:55 MDT.

The scream of a fox can make a man's hair stand on end.

I soon recognized the sound, but the time a bull elk spent most of the night bugling near my camp one October night was quite interesting. At first I was thrilled. However, the 7th or 8th time he woke me from a sound sleep, I had strong thoughts about elk stew!

I've heard the initial sounds of the elk bugle described as similar to a not-very-good high school clarinetist attempting to play the riff at the beginning of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," followed by miscellaneous grunts. (From WIlliam Sullivan's "Listening for Coyote.") Pretty good description, I'd say.

Those unearthly screaming sounds are undoubtedly mountain lion/cougar.

Edited by hikinggranny on 10/09/2012 23:54:11 MDT.

Rabbits will also scream when scared or injured. You wouldn't think such a sound could come from something so cute and quiet-looking.

The really scary things you'll never hear coming. Woke up one morning with mountain lion tracks circling my tent. Never heard a thing.

Did not hear the bear climbing into an open car window at camp either. We were less than 20' away.

Widow makers.

Sweet dreams everyone.