Spooky season is upon us, and if you’re on edge after watching “The Shining” one too many times, you might find that the woods are full of jump scares. Acorns ricochet off the roof of your car like gunshots; squirrels become Sasquatches when rustling through deep leaf litter. Darkness only adds to the drama. Are those coyotes howling over a fresh kill? Are they coming for me next?
As with most things, a little knowledge can go a long way toward dispelling our fears. So, in the spirit of the season – and to extend some grace to our oft-misunderstood wild neighbors – I hereby offer this incomplete guide to the chilling, thrilling sounds of the woods at night:
Whoooo goes there?
Although barred owls are best known for their culinary inquiries (Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?), they have one of the most diverse vocal repertoires of any North American owl species. Researchers have identified 13 different types of barred owl vocalizations, including screams, wails, one-phrase hoots, two-phrase hoots, and a call known simply as the “Hoo-wah.”
These boisterous birds of prey also engage in lengthy, complicated duets known as caterwauling, which the Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes as “a raucous jumble of gurgles; mumbles; three-note, short ascending hoots; fast ascending hoots; and two-note calls.” If it sounds like your woods have been invaded by a troupe of maniacal monkeys, do not fear! Those are just your neighborhood barred owls engaged in a mouthy – but non-violent – territorial discussion.
The Howling
It’s a classic horror movie trope: a B-list actor stumbles through a foreboding forest in the dark of night. Suddenly, the clouds part, revealing the full moon. Wolves howl. Terror ensues.
Here in New Hampshire, the closest thing we have to a wolf is the Eastern coyote, and I’ll admit that, under certain circumstances, their howls – and yips and whines – can send a shiver down my spine. Myths abound, and one of the most enduring is that coyotes wail to celebrate a successful hunt – a sinister premise. Thankfully, however, that’s just a scary story.
As mere humans, we can never truly know what’s going through the mind of our canine cousins, but biologists believe the howling serves several basic functions, including helping to locate family members, communicating danger or concern, and advertising their presence to other coyotes – a way of warding off conflict before coming to fisticuffs. In other words, howling may actually serve to prevent bloodshed. One coyote researcher likened it to singing, “We’re a happy family, and this is our home!”
Perhaps one of the reasons these resourceful canids loom so large in our collective imagination is that their voices carry. The unique howls of individual coyotes have been recorded and identified from more than a mile away, and biologists speculate that, given their exceptional hearing, coyotes can likely discern the individual voices of other coyotes at distances of three miles or more on especially calm nights.
True to their trickster nature, “song dogs” can also make themselves sound bigger – and more imposing – than they really are. In a study published in the journal “Human–Wildlife Interactions,” researchers played recordings of coyote calls for more than 400 people, and asked them to estimate the number of coyotes they were hearing. Nearly 90% of participants thought they were hearing twice as many coyotes as were actually recorded. Moral of the story: where coyotes are concerned, don’t believe everything you hear.
Scream queens
Every once in a while, someone will call the Harris Center to inquire about unnerving screams they’ve heard ringing out in the darkness. Usually, they blame the fisher, New Hampshire’s most-maligned mustelid. It’s been said that these weasel relatives shriek like banshees or cry out like a person in the midst of being murdered. One internet troll went so far as to liken fisher vocalizations to “an unearthly tormented specter wandering the woods late at night.”
In actuality, it’s almost never a fisher. Although fishers can scream when under extreme duress, they are, for the most part, quiet creatures. If you are ever lucky enough to hear a fisher’s voice, it will likely be in the form of a chuckle, grunt, or chortle.
The real animals giving Janet Leigh a run for her money are most likely bobcats or red foxes.
As solitary predators, adult bobcats maintain a relatively large territory – so, when their winter breeding season rolls around, they must turn to loud, long-distance sounds to locate a mate across the expanse. Their signature scream-yowls peak from January through early March, after which they return to a quieter, more secretive existence.
Female red foxes also shriek or wail during courtship (who are we to judge?), a disquieting sound known as “the vixen scream.” As with bobcats, you are most likely to hear this call echoing through the frost on a cold winter night.
To the uninitiated, the nighttime woods can be a fright, full of shadows and disconcerting noises – but what might seem menacing at first is really just a conversation between creatures, and nothing to fear. Most of the time, anyway…
Brett Amy Thelen is Science Director at the Harris Center for Conservation Education.