Fox making noises behind my house

[wahoowad]

I live in a wooded area and have frequently heard a strange, shrill animal cry that I could never identify. Tonight I have figured out it is a fox. The noise is exactly like what you hear if you listen to soundtrack #11 at this website: (broken link removed to http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Fox_Sounds_audio.aspx)

I'm curious if anybody knows why the fox might be making this noise? I wouldn't think it is calling for a mate, but could be wrong. I heard it about 1.5 hours after dark.

 

[JustWood]

Either in heat or found a food source and calling others. Right now is prime time for breeding.

 

[DiscoInferno]

Our local fox makes the "fox calling out" sound at night, at least in warmer weather. I thought maybe it was mom calling her kits.

 

[Bobbin]

It gets your attention, doesn't it? I haven't heard any around here for a few months, but probably will in the coming months. I see them trotting down the road when I leave for work (before sunup). We have cats that like to go outside and had one attacked some years ago. Now, when we hear a fox nearby we just let out the "enforcer" (the dog).

 

[colebrookman]

Heard it just two nights ago. Very strange especially on a cold moonlit night. One of the many joys of rural living. Be safe.
Ed

 

[Dune]

We had foxes that screamed in the backyard at my parrent's farm. They are all gone now, the coyotes took over.

 

[mayhem]

We have some fox here as well. First time I heard them sceraming it send me for the front dor looking to see waht maniac was attacking the neighbor's kids with a knife. Scary as hell sound for a parent of a (at the time) 4 year old girl...my daddy sense were runnnig in overdrive every time the damn thing screamed. It really does sound like a human child in pain.

 

[billb3]

Sock in his pocket doesn't work.
They start advertising with day length, not necessarily temperature.
The birds are starting here, too.

Claiming territory can go on all year round.


Thier 'bark' sounds like what a cat would sound like if it could bark.



We've got a strain of rabies going around ...raccoon some-thing-or-other.... No skunks, raccoons, foxes at all. No raodkill, the woods are quiet. No footprints in the snow. Just squirrels. I've seen one rabbit this year, which is one more than last year. I may have to put the fence back up around my garden.

 

[drizler]

We have a fox den about 150 yards from the house and have been listening to them for the last 15 years, red fox. I hear the yelping bark all the time and that coughing for a mate goes on much of the year just after dark. We never have had any cat - fox problems at all or it would be .250 Savage time. They just run all over the field trying to stay out of sight of the horses. For some reason they just love to attack the poor fox whenever they see any of them in the area. We are about over run with huge coyotes around here but they don't seem to bother the foxes since the den is pretty close to the house so they keep thier distance. Horses love to take a crack at them now and again too. Funny, in all this time I never heard that sound you mention. It does remind me of something though. That sound the bigfoot hunters keep recording. I am surprised no one has seen through that one yet it sounds identical.

 

[Swamp Yankee]

Fishercats sound much worse. We have those around here... they make the freakiest sound I've ever heard.

 

[Dune]

Fishercats sound much worse. We have those around here... they make the freakiest sound I've ever heard.

I was always told that Cape Codders were called swamp yankees. What do you know of the origin of the term, or did you coin it for yourself?

 

[leaddog]

Had a pack of coyotes make akill last nite when I went out and fed the boiler. They were about 200yds away but that will make the hair stand on end. A couple years ago we had just go home and heard the coyotes making a huge racket and all of a sudden One started to cry . A couple minutes latter we could smell the skunk really strong. I bet that coyotes eyes stung for a while
Last winter I let the dog out in the nite and kept hearing a low moaning sound. I couldn't figure it out but the next morning I went out and checked and a couple of bobcats had killed a rabbit and the sound was one growling at the other one. I then remembered hearing cats do that as a kid. If you want to have the hair stand up be out in the woods and have a bobcat scream at you because you are where he don't want you to be. Was deer hunting and as I left the blind he let loose. Next morning when I went out to set again He had marked all over the blind. Sure did stink.
leaddog

 

[Swamp Yankee]

Fishercats sound much worse. We have those around here... they make the freakiest sound I've ever heard.

I was always told that Cape Codders were called swamp yankees. What do you know of the origin of the term, or did you coin it for yourself?

Nope, it's a term used around here for a long time. I googled wikipedia and it says:

"a rural dweller--one of stubborn, old-fashioned, frugal, English-speaking Yankee stock, of good standing in the rural community, but usually possessing minimal formal education and little desire to augment it. Swamp Yankees themselves react to the term with slight disapproval or indifference...The term is unfavorably received when used by a city dweller with the intention of ridiculing a country resident; however, when one country resident refers to another as a swamp Yankee, no offense is taken, and it is treated as good-natured jest.".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp_Yankee

Ever summer in Ashaway there is a festival called Swamp Yankee Days. Good times.

 

[drizler]

Fishercats sound much worse. We have those around here... they make the freakiest sound I've ever heard.

If you can point to a sound track for the fisher I would love to hear it. We don't have any around that I know of near my place right now but I am aways watching for sign of them. Those things are a true plague. They move in and kill every small critter in sight then move on living like a wolf free ranging and living in hollow trees or under rocks. The first sign you notice of them is whan all the rabbits, squirrels , chipmunks feral cats ect are gone. Then they start coming in and eating your cats and small dogs often right off your porch day or night. They aren't much afraid of people either. Nasty critters and thier only virtue is that they are stupid when it comes to trapping and it makes them easy to kill with a kill trap. That's how I took out the one that ate my 4 cats before I could even figure out what was doing it. People with chickens around here have had a lot of problems with them over the years. They had a really interesting feature article on them on the front cover of "old Farmers Alminac" a few years ago. It was titled "Your Cat's Worst Nightmare". If you ever thought you saw a very large black or brown ferret running through the trees you probably saw a fisher. The decline of the fir trade and a very short trapping season have led to a population explosion of the things in recent years. Just what the world needed. The funny thing is until you start having problems with them no one seems to even know they exist until pets start dissappearing and questions start getting asked.
Like I said if anyone knows where I can lay an ear on that fisher sound track let me know.

 

[Bobbin]

Oh for Pete's sake all that crap about the "savagery of the Fisher" is just a lot of rural hype. Sure, they're predatory, but they're not maniacal and they don't "kill for fun". Small domestic animals face a greater threat from coyotes or automobilesor stupid owners. If you allow your animals to go outdoors (we always have and continue to) there will always be a chance they will become part of the food chain. It's the chance we take.

Fishers are members of the Marten family and they're beautiful. I saw one cross the road just north of our home several years ago. I considered myself very fortunate to actually catch a glimpse of it. They were more common in the more northern and rural part of NH where I grew up.

 

[drewboy]

I saw a fisher up close at the Squam Lakes Science Center - a bit bigger than a cat with a face like Charles Bronson - I wouldn't mess with one. One of the guys at work had his cat taken right off his front step by a fisher, he saw the whole thing. I asked him if he tried to rescue the cat and he said there was no chance. I have one cat that goes outside but I make sure he is inside by dusk.

Rob

 

[firefighterjake]

Oh for Pete's sake all that crap about the "savagery of the Fisher" is just a lot of rural hype. Sure, they're predatory, but they're not maniacal and they don't "kill for fun". Small domestic animals face a greater threat from coyotes or automobilesor stupid owners. If you allow your animals to go outdoors (we always have and continue to) there will always be a chance they will become part of the food chain. It's the chance we take.

Fishers are members of the Marten family and they're beautiful. I saw one cross the road just north of our home several years ago. I considered myself very fortunate to actually catch a glimpse of it. They were more common in the more northern and rural part of NH where I grew up.

I think I would have to respectfully disagree with you Bobbin' . . . I had a cat who was nearly disemboweled . . . now it's hard to say what did this to her, but the country vet said if he had to guess based on the injuries it was a fisher. Poor cat never was the same even after she healed up . . . mentally scarred . . . she would often just sit and stare at us from behind the French door in our house and make no move to hang out with us . . . when you pet her she would be purring one second and then hissing at you the next and then she would go back to purring.

 

[colebrookman]

Oh for Pete's sake all that crap about the "savagery of the Fisher" is just a lot of rural hype. Sure, they're predatory, but they're not maniacal and they don't "kill for fun". Small domestic animals face a greater threat from coyotes or automobilesor stupid owners. If you allow your animals to go outdoors (we always have and continue to) there will always be a chance they will become part of the food chain. It's the chance we take.

Fishers are members of the Marten family and they're beautiful. I saw one cross the road just north of our home several years ago. I considered myself very fortunate to actually catch a glimpse of it. They were more common in the more northern and rural part of NH where I grew up.

+1 Certainly agree with "Bobbin" They usually kill for food unlike the common house cat who is the greatest killer of our birds. Ground nesting birds have a tough time surviving if there are cats around much in the same way that domestic dogs kill deer. Be safe.
Ed

 

[drizler]

Oh for Pete's sake all that crap about the "savagery of the Fisher" is just a lot of rural hype. Sure, they're predatory, but they're not maniacal and they don't "kill for fun". Small domestic animals face a greater threat from coyotes or automobilesor stupid owners. If you allow your animals to go outdoors (we always have and continue to) there will always be a chance they will become part of the food chain. It's the chance we take.

Fishers are members of the Marten family and they're beautiful. I saw one cross the road just north of our home several years ago. I considered myself very fortunate to actually catch a glimpse of it. They were more common in the more northern and rural part of NH where I grew up.

Really, pardon my inexpert exaggeration what was I thinking. I am not going to tell you that a guy I work with saw a big black "cat that looked like a big weasle" take his cat right off his front porch and run off with it. He didn't even know it wasn't a cat till I told him about them and showed him a picture. A guy I know who lived down the road had his old poodle run over by a car. They had to put it down . The main reason though was that its leg was gnawed nearly off. The guy who hit it saw the big black fisher chase it right out in front of him. Gramted. it was a small poodle and pretty old but that thing caught it and ripped its leg nearly off and chased it right out in the open straight at a car. The one that ate my cats was a female that weighed around 10 lbs , rather puny actually but still cleaned out my local acreage of everything living in a few months.
As for their fear of people a couple years later I was limbing trees with a chain saw and burning a pile of brush big as a truck. Off in the woods about 100 yds away a rabbit starts getting chewed on. If you ever heard it you would know it as its something you don't forget. I didn't go over as I had no gun with me. My daughter went out a half hour later and saw something out in a pile of debris in that area and thought it was our black cat. She walked nearly up to it before it started to back off. It wasn't all that afraid but just retreated but waited until she was 20 to 30 feet away to leave. That is way more ballsy than any yote I have ever seen and ours here are plenty big. So your mileage may vary concerning these things but this is what I KNOW to be true. Go dig out that cover article of the Old Farmers Alminac and give it a read. It's hard to miss as it's got a nice big picture of one on the front cover. They say that fisher will go so far as break into your house to kill your cat and give a story of a woman who witnessed it happen to hers. Their description pretty closely matches mine, not some cutsey little forrest critter.

 

[Swamp Yankee]

My neighbor lost a 35 lb beagle to a fishercat.

 

[billb3]

My brother lost chickens to a fishercat.
I didn't think they were around here, especially in more suburban areas, but apparently they are.

He lost one every couple of nights, so it was a week or so before he noticed his supply of hens was dwindling.
Carted it off far away, never found a pile of feathers.
He lost all of them in one barn despite all his efforts, but it wouldn't tear its way into the other barn for some reason.

Strength of a raccoon or better from the ripped wood I saw.

 

[bjkjoseph]

foxes by me sound exactly the same

 

[drizler]

Best solution is a pole set kill trap. You have to make sure its far out in the boonies enough your cats don't get into it or anyone elses for that matter. Cut a 10 to 12' pole from a cedar or similar tree. 2 by 4 should work too. Lean it on a 45 degree or more angle up into a tree. Way up there near the top hang a plastic jug with a couple ripe chicken pieces or whatever ripe meat you can find in there and have some holes drilled in the bottle for smell dispersion. Make sure it's high enough the coyotes can't jump up and get it, 5' seems good. It's easier to just nail it to a point above the trap but you will find that crows and vultures tend to grab it. I hung mine behind in the tree finally because I was afraid of the turkey buzzards getting killed. Below the bait lightly staple a 220 Kill trap to the tree on the top side like the bait. That will make it so our problem has to walk through the box and hit the trigger in doing so. Instant broke back mountain. Of course it may take a month or two to draw it in but the longer it stinks the better. This is the country method not for use in areas where you have neighbors nearby with cats who can be equally drawn up there. Do it in the winter so the raccoons won't get into it either. If you have cats around you could use a live trap as well . If you catch one in a live trap take the thing at least 20 miles away as they tend to have a huge roaming distance like a wolf. They tend to wander. It doesn't take any special finesse or precautions like boiling traps. Just tack it up there and let it do it's thing. Total investment 4 bucks for the trap or 25 from Harbor Freight for a live trap. Live traps always come in handy for raccoon exportation proceedings when your garbage starts getting spread all over.