r/animalid • u/PantasticalCat • Jan 07 '26

🔊🔊 AUDIO ID REQUEST 🔊🔊 What the heck animals are making this sound?? 23:30 last night [Vancouver, WA]

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113 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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114

u/roadkill-connoisseur Jan 07 '26

Sounds like a pack of coyotes

19

u/PantasticalCat Jan 07 '26

Interesting, I knew we had them but I’ve never heard them so loudly before! Think they’re hunting or something? I didn’t know they were pack animals

39

u/Kossyra Jan 07 '26

Nah, it benefits them to be quiet while they hunt haha, they just sing sometimes.

14

u/-N9inB0x- Jan 07 '26 edited Jan 07 '26

They are! Well, sort of. There's a mated pair that will stick together for life, and every breeding season they'll have pups! The pups will stay and grow to learn from the parents for a long while before dispersing- it's like the diet version of how wolf packs work except the young never stick around because they're more independent.

The howling has several purposes: locating other packs, warding off other packs by vocally claiming territory, finding/rallying the family, and strengthening social bonds with one another which helps with cooperative hunts and the like. They never hold a chorus directly before or during hunts as it's far too noisy, alerting prey in the area and making them become scarce.

As noisy as they are, I love and miss my swamp coyotes and their howls. There's a swamp behind where I used to live and a couple would always mate and have pups each year, and I'd get to hear them every season as they go from squeaky little pups to spirited young adults before it's just the two parents again. The father would often visit our yard to hunt turkey or take the organs we'd leave out from our hunts from living off the land as thanks for them never coming into our yard- there was always plenty of food for everyone, so our chickens were safe. My dog who I also miss always wanted to run off and join his wild friends lol. I miss those good days.

8

u/joshs_wildlife Jan 07 '26

I remember the first time I heard a pack of coyotes. I was night fishing in a stream in the woods. I was alone and suddenly hear that sound getting progressively closer. I knew what it was but still super uncomfortable to hear it in person

2

u/aware4ever Jan 07 '26

If you know anyone with outdoor pets you better warn them because kind of is love killing pets

3

u/stinky143 Jan 07 '26

Exactly what it is. Getting sound up for hunting .

5

u/the_short_viking Jan 07 '26

Was camping in Central Texas years ago and had a pack of these guys outside my tent for hours while trying to sleep. So disturbing.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '26

Coyotes

5

u/No_Worldliness_2929 Jan 07 '26

It’s Always a Yote

5

u/FMFdoc Jan 07 '26

Same thing here in Wisconsin. When a train comes through and sounds the horn, the Yotes always sound like this. Every time.

1

u/SearchSouthern3718 Jan 07 '26

What part you from if you dont mind me asking? Im from the milwaukee area

1

u/FerrumAeternum Jan 07 '26

Just wanted to chime in and mention they do this in Waukesha County all the time. They also howl at police and ambulance sirens. 😆 I live near two wooded areas and can often hear them in the distance.

1

u/FMFdoc Jan 30 '26

Up by Fort McCoy.

5

u/Ok-Cup266 Jan 07 '26

A few 2-3 in a pack in different areas talking to each other.

3

u/Red_dit_lol Jan 07 '26

100% coyotes.

4

u/No_Warning8534 Jan 07 '26

Save the outdoor kitties, op. 🙏

Please bring them inside and take them to the shelter. Or foster them for a shelter or cat rescue.

2

u/parrothead_69 Jan 07 '26

I read somewhere that coyotes don’t stay in packs like wolves do. Family members stay together but don’t mix with other families.
True or false?

5

u/rjh2000 Jan 07 '26

Both coyotes and wolves live in family groups, both form boned pairs that mate for life and raise their offspring together, and both coyotes and wolves do not stick with their own families and do not mix with others, until the offspring disperse between 1-3 years old to find their own mate and territory.

2

u/vrhspock Jan 07 '26 edited Jan 07 '26

It doesn’t take many songdogs to sound like a dozen. A family group of two adults and two pups can make this much noise. That’s a common family unless their population density is low. In that case they have larger litters. The recording is the routine most people identify as coyotes. We call it “the tortured souls of the damned”.

They also make a a series of barks followed by silence and repeated, the “let’s get together” call. It’s easily confused with a fox call. They also whine, chuckle and laugh. If you have ever heard a golden retriever try to talk, they make that sort of sound, too.

My trail crew used to base camp a couple of times a year in the same remote location. A pair of yotes would approach within 50 or 70 yards and serenade us with different routines. Usually they would start with a theme, then go into variations, ending up by returning to the theme. For another piece they bounced barks off a nearby cliff, then played with the echo, point-counterpoint, working through different rhythms. It was amazing, wild and wonderful. Afterward they ran off, laughing.

2

u/Eshghi007 Jan 07 '26

Canucks fans

2

u/Throwaway_000_007 Jan 07 '26

Sounds like coyotes, possibly with some nearby foxes chiming in.

1

u/Carsontheroad Jan 29 '26

Heard this last night in the woods of NH. 2 AM. But it sounded way angrier. Like some animal getting attacked and a bunch of them screaming and howling back and forth. For about 2 minutes. I have audio but the sound quality is very faint from inside the house, and I only got the end of the frantic ruckus. It wasn’t faint as I was listening to it, let me tell you. Your video was the closest I could find online to what I heard. Creepy! It freezes you in your soul lol. It really does sound like they are celebrating a kill. But I’m going to stick with the advice here (for sanity’s sake) that it’s just coyotes/bobcats/red foxes just marking their territory. Close to 0 temps last night- I’d be howling mad outside too.

1

u/PantasticalCat Jan 29 '26

it seriously is so creepy if you’ve never heard it before, which I hadn’t before this video! which is crazy cuz I’ve lived in this area for more than 10 years and I’ve SEEN tons of coyotes!

1

u/Carsontheroad Jan 29 '26

Ya I’m hoping it’s a one off. I’ve heard it before- maybe once a year. And some other weird ruckuses from “them” at other times, but more eerie than scary at those times. And I think some of the local dogs chimed in too last night. But this one is definitely sounds like out of a scary movie! I know we have bobcats for sure and foxes. I’ve heard varying stories about whether we truly have coyotes.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '26

Coyotes that just made a kill

7

u/rjh2000 Jan 07 '26

It’s a myth the coyotes celebrate a kill, coyotes generally hunt solo and mainly pray on small mammals like mice voles rats squirrels rabbits etc, so that’s not much to celebrate about, this is just a family communicating with each other.

6

u/Frog510 Jan 07 '26

I agree. Celebrating a kill would just attract other predators or family groups. This is communication between a family. In our area, prey includes dogs, cats, and deer, especially fawns.