The night screams...

[Tbone192]

If you live in North America or South America and you hear what sounds like a woman screaming in the night. DO NOT APPROACH! Report it and record it. Most likely it is a cougar. Female cougars make this bone chilling sound when they are trying to attract a mate. I have been hearing this the past few nights and it always deeply concerns me. Best thing to do is contact local authorities and let them know in case something more nefarious is happening. It gets so bad I have to put in the earbuds and rock myself to sleep. Do not endanger yourself.

 

[The Snark]

Absolutely terrifying bone chilling sound. Hearing a cougar coming up a long draw our cabin was at the top of we heard it resonate adding extra sound effects for about 15 minutes. A couple of weeks later I heard another out in the open brush about a 1/4 mile away. Still sent shivers up my spine but not as dramatic. A piercing drawn out high pitched wail unlike any other sound I've heard.

 

[Tbone192]

I used to live in the Kootenays, right next to a big forest. Most nights, sleep does not come. Only the shrill screams rattling through my very bones. There was a community of creatively housed in that very forest and disputes between them and the wildlife were common and very loud. Thankfully, their structures were quite well defended. Easier prey was abundant anyways so I do not believe there were any real problems. Still scary though, I could not imagine having to deal with a cougar up close and personal.

 

[The Snark]

I could not imagine having to deal with a cougar up close and personal.

Altadena, fire in the mountains drove the wildlife down onto the populated area.
My mother let her dog out in the evening. It let out a yelp immediately after going around the corner of the house and came running back. Her entire side was slashed open. Took 120-150 sutures to close it. Not sure if it was a cougar or bobcat. Academic really.
In the Sierras. Packed a couple into the mountains. They chose a little privacy at to old cabin area on the far side out the clearing. Kids had taken over the cabin so I pit my sleeping bag out near the corral. Just getting into the bag the couple, stark naked, came blitzing across and ran into the cabin. I checked it out. The guy woke up to something landing on his chest. A playful cougar kitten. I had to walk patrol pretty much all night around the pasture, firing off a shot now and then. Had to be extra wary for a couple of weeks until I felt assured mom cat had moved away. What I didn't need was her or the kits going into the pasture and spooking the horses into charging the barbed wire fencing.

 

[TTJOHNS22]

Bobcats like to do this also. So if your feeling courageous it's some kind of cat.

 

[Glorfindel]

We call them Catamount around here. No mistaking between the two. Bobtail versus Longtail and longer sleeker body.

 

[Tbone192]

I see plenty of Bobcats and they typically make the classic "wildcat" sound. The screams though, couldn't be anything but a cougar at that pitch. As a conservationist, I am quite well versed in the ways of the wild North. A lot of people say dealing with small venomous stuff is scarier. No way! I'd much rather deal with Atrax sp than a bloody cougar or a bear.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Is that we’re the term cat calling comes from ?

 

[Brewser]

Puma concolor alias Panther, Cougar, Mountain Lion.
Teeth and Claws...Big Males up to 220 pounds, 3 feet at the shoulder, over 8 feet long including tail.
Rule the Night

 

[darkness975]

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

My mother grew up by someone who had peacocks and said it sounded like a woman yelling, “Help, help!”
Some of their sounds do. Around 30 seconds in

 

[Tbone192]

Red foxes can indeed be loud and kind of scary sounding. Again, the sound is distinct and I have been around both enough to know this difference. I 100% know this is a cougar though. There have even been reported sightings in my neighbourhood of a young female cougar. I've gone out during the day and done some research of my own, discovering a very obvious cougar kill site in the nearby provincial park, just a km or two from my neighbourhood. If only it were foxes...

 

[darkness975]

Red foxes can indeed be loud and kind of scary sounding. Again, the sound is distinct and I have been around both enough to know this difference. I 100% know this is a cougar though. There have even been reported sightings in my neighbourhood of a young female cougar. I've gone out during the day and done some research of my own, discovering a very obvious cougar kill site in the nearby provincial park, just a km or two from my neighbourhood. If only it were foxes...

I'm not denying that. I agree.

 

[Tbone192]

Just wanted to clarify for the folks out there

 

[Ratmosphere]

In my area it's most likely foxes, as cougars are not naturally occurring.

 

[The Snark]

For myself, with chronic tinnitus that blocks out most of a frequency range I can hear a fox as the shriek modulates in my lost range enhancing the ringing, can barely hear those godawful peacocks, while the cougar subhamonics are very obvious. The differences are most obvious when viewed in an oscilloscope. But people with full range of hearing usually get their sound sensitivity overwhelmed similar to crossover distortion making it hard to differentiate frequencies.
Fox, cougar or other. It's a question of familiarity. Specifically ear training for pitch and timber, the “shape” and “color” of the sound. . A trained ear can pick out a violin from a viola while listening to a full orchestra.

I heard several fox screams at an animal torture facility AKA the average zoo. Took me a couple of days for my tinnitus to dial back down. I hated those blasted peacocks turned loose as pest control at the arboretum I worked at. Piercing siren like whine that made me grit my teeth.