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The week before Thanksgiving I was camped at Juniper Basin on Tanque Verde ridge. I don't know why, but the NPS-designated campsites are adjacent to fairly dependable water (i.e. no chance of sleeping soundly).

Shortly after a chilly sunset the critters started coming out. One (or more) made a continuous gurgly rasping sound, like a rainstick or a faucet left on. It was truly continuous and unmodulated for 10 minutes or more, audible from the animal's approach to its departure. As it grew close, I also heard footsteps. It entered the creekbed and sloshed back and forth through a series of pools for at least 5 minutes with a cadence that suggested something fairly big. Since it didn't try to get into the tent, and the rangers warned of a rabid fox reported at that camp the preceding day, I didn't venture out for a peek. The episode was repeated several more times during the night.

My attempts to recreate this sound didn't ring any bells with the four rangers I asked (they also didn't seem concerned about placing designated campsites next to water). However, one said that a group of 15 coatis had recently been seen there. I also saw a handful of deer and many bear digs.

Does anyone know what it might have been?

Note to self: camp at least 250 ft. if not 1/4 mile from any water visited by wildlife, otherwise risk unwanted encounter with the elusive but deadly Chupacabra. D'oh!

Is that how you got the name?

In response to pfredricks' reply:

Well, I sure hope nobody ever has to pack out my half-eaten carcass (great quote, by the way). My handle comes from all the water that seems necessary to get where I'm going with a comfortable safety margin.

I long ago swore off camping near water, and I'm still perplexed by the nonchalance of Saguaro NP staff on this topic. They seemed to think it odd that I didn't actually prefer it, and said the rules didn't apply because the water is seasonal there. I assume their insistence on designated sites is meant to control impact due to high traffic levels, but I think they should consider relocating.

Could it have been a large animal with paralyzed vocal cords, rasping on both in and out as it breathed? Rabies causies paralysis/spasm of the throat muscles and vocal cords; that's why it's called "hydrophobia" -- because even the THOUGHT of swallowing causes very painful throat spasms. (And large animals are incredibly susceptible to rabies -- as much or moreso than the stereotypical mad dog.)

Only thing I can think of besides a nighthawk, which sounds exactly like a rainstick but obviously doesn't slosh through a creek.

Rabies scares the spit out of me.
Leva

In response to Leva's reply:

I wasn't aware rabies presented this symptom. Your description sounds eerily like what I did with my throat to imitate the sound for the rangers. Maybe I don't need to feel so bad about cowering in my tent.

I have encountered (probably) rabid animals before, but none that made any vocalizations. One was a three-legged raccoon that wanted to get into my back door. He wasn't dissuaded by multiple thunks on the head and face with the soft end of a broom. He backed off after a sharp jab in the belly with the other end, but only a by a couple feet, and resumed his attempts almost immediately. While this wasn't too scary, replacing a wood frame house with a few mils of nylon and a crippled raccoon with a more agile creature really changes the equation.

Racoons are VERY tough tenacious creatures. When I was about 13 or so, we went hunting racoons. We shot one out of a tree, it fell about 40-50 feet, landed on an old steel I-beam from a stripped down pickup truck, then proceeded to chase us.

I've had a couple of encounters that made me suspect "rabies" -- one that really sticks in my mind was a bat that ATTACKED my step mom in broad daylight, actually landed on her jacket and was biting the jacket. Fortunately, it couldn't actually bite her THROUGH the jacket ... we tried to kill it, but it got away.

I also saw a kit fox walking alongside Maricopa Rd. down here in Hidden Valley in broad daylight a few months ago. Kits are strictly nocturnal; it made me wonder ...

Leva