In my early years of hunting, I remember a guy telling me that a bobcat screaming was the scariest wildlife sound you can possibly encounter in the woods. And if you hear it in the dark of night, it’ll make you want to go back to the truck and head home. “You’ll know it when you hear it,” he said. “It’ll sound like a woman screaming.” I was just 10 or 11 years old at the time, so I simply wrote it off as a scare tactic that old man was trying to pull over on me.
And then it happened.
I was hunting with a buddy before school one morning. We stumbled down the trail in the dark trying to find our way to a couple treestands. We stopped at a fork in the trail to wish each other luck and make a plan for meeting back up. It was at that time, right in the direction of where my stand was placed, we heard the most awful series of screams. I thought someone was dying! And though some 6 or 7 years had passed, I remembered what that guy had told me – it sounded just like a woman screaming.
These two cats squaring off make some of the craziest wild cat vocals you’ll ever hear.
And just like that, I changed plans. I told my buddy he could have my stand and I was going elsewhere. There was no way in the world I was headed towards that screaming woman!
Many years have past, and I don’t know that I’ve heard another cat scream quite like that one did in the dark that morning. I’ve heard a number of bobcat vocals, but nothing quite like that. And I’m okay with that. If you’ve yet to hear it for yourself, just check out the video below. Sure, the cats in the video appear to be Lynx, but the sounds are pretty much the same as a common bobcat. It’s the closest thing I’ve heard yet to the sound I heard on the way to my treestand that morning.
Give it a watch, and when you do, imagine hearing it in the dark of night, on your way to the treestand, at 4:30 in the morning.
https://www.facebook.com/100009263985184/videos/2026395574345889/
What about you? What’s the scariest wildlife sound you’ve ever heard? Have you ever heard a bobcat screaming in the night? Comment below and let us know your reaction.
