There is No Scarier Sound

A few nights ago at around 2 am we were rudely awoken by the shrill and chilling call of a fox. A better description of it is a scream. If you've never heard the haunting sound they make check it out here. You need Quicktime to play it.


It sounds like something from another world and the sound file isn't loud or scary enough. In real life, it's just no way to be woken up, especially when it's right next to the house and the lambs who were alone in the barnyard. I don't think my heart beat returned to normal for about an hour. I think the call was coming from one of the group that has a den 5 yards down the road in a field. If you look at this photo I took from a distance (click to enlarge), you can see the cubs wrestling.

A few years ago when I was riding my horse up a wooded trail I passed what I knew to be a fox den. All was quiet. On the way back, the horse and I were daydreaming when I saw a bunch of fox pups. I enjoyed the scene and forgot about their shrill shrieks. Then all of a sudden they started to scream. I don't know who was scared more, them, me or the horse! It's probably the scariest natural sound I've ever heard and one that is burned in my memory forever.