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Is anyone familiar with bobcat calls (squalls). My sleep above Massacre Grounds was interrupted by some nearby squalling that sounded rather like a couple of neighborhood tomcats settling their differences. A bit throatier and slightly deeper pitched than the domestic cats I've heard. I'm assuming bobcat, but haven't ever heard them before.

Thanks, Bill

I would bet that if you searched "bobcat calls" on youtube or even google, you would get something to compare with what you heard.

They could just be strays or feral housecats too, I've noticed quite a few out in the Supes. Bobcats would be cooler, though.

Thanks for the replies. I did go googling and after wading through lots of advice on how to blow bobcats to oblivion, I found a couple of recordings. The recordings were certainly a good match for what I heard, but I'm not sure I can rule out the feral housecats suggested by Nonot. Still, a fine voice for waking up to while sleeping under the stars. May bobcats prosper.

Bobcat squalls sound just like a beefier version of what a domestic cat would make.

formertexan wrote:Is anyone familiar with bobcat calls (squalls). My sleep above Massacre Grounds was interrupted by some nearby squalling that sounded rather like a couple of neighborhood tomcats settling their differences. A bit throatier and slightly deeper pitched than the domestic cats I've heard. I'm assuming bobcat, but haven't ever heard them before.

Thanks, Bill

Yesterday I was hiking off-trail high on the ridge between Praying Hands and Massacre Falls. Just before I reached the falls, I saw a LOT of cougar scat, old and fresh, and scratch marks. I'm betting you heard a cougar (maybe he was killing a bobcat). You were camped out in his yard at night... you are lucky you only heard him!

Hey, cats are cool,
Mtn Lion #1== Anza Borrego/Los Coyotes border, hike away from Jeep with a friend on old road cut, saw tracks, later small mtn lion flushed out from brush, we had passed within a few feet, young cat. I was freaked out but my friend just laughed. The tracks we saw were much larger so maybe Mom or Dad??? A ranger at AB told me a lion had a den at middle willows; this was about 12 years ago.
Mt Lion #2== Utah, on a backpack near Halls Creek, in my bivy under a tree, full moonlight, had noticed tracks on hike in, overlaying boot tracks. After narrows fun, getting set up for night with full bright moon. Heard some low moaning like growling then some whining of sorts. Cat stood on slickrock maybe 100 yards away. Silver in moonlight, just gorgeous. I was sitting up partially in bivy. Cat moved away silently, really nice and big, long tail. I had trouble sleeping and kept a trekking pole nearby but did get some sleep.
Mt Lion # 3== On an over night in the Santa Teresas hiking out and stopped to adjust pack near a boulder outcrop. Looked to my left, felt eyes on me and less than 15 feet away saw a beautiful face peeking around the rock at me. As I leaned out the cat shrunk back, never saw more than head and one front leg. He/She ran off leaping over boulders with such grace. I was never afraid, just will never forget those wonderful eyes in that face.

Like most animals, unless habituated to humans and/or you make a bad mistake around their young,or corner them, they will avoid you and no need to be afraid, just use common sense.

snakemarks wrote:I'm betting you heard a cougar (maybe he was killing a bobcat). You were camped out in his yard at night... you are lucky you only heard him!

Cougars generally sound like a woman being strangled to death (that's the best description I've heard). I have heard one, and it did sound something like that. If it sounded like a large domestic cat, it was probably either a bobcat or large domestic cat, as others have suggested.

Cougars generally sound like a woman being strangled to death. I have heard one, and it did sound something like that.

Interesting confession.

Heard a cougar. Oy, maybe I should think again about trying to get my writing published...

it'll be published alright, by the Arizona Superior Court

AZLOT69 wrote:

Cougars generally sound like a woman being strangled to death. I have heard one, and it did sound something like that.

Interesting confession.

Yeah... You want to explain that one?! Cuz that's a pretty messed up statement.

I am fascinated (disgusted) by the amount of time that some of you 'manly men' have spent trying to prove me wrong. If one of the guys had made this statement, would you be so hell bent on arguing this or would you just take HIS word for it? I was there - you weren't. You 'men' can argue this until the end of time, but what's the point? No one will ever be able to prove it one way or another...

...unless one of you 'experts' would like to go up there and have a look for yourself...

I'm betting...not.

I'm sure you'll have a good excuse.

Look damnit, that is the way it was described to me one time; like a woman being strangled. I have never and will never strangle a woman (or man, or child, or etc. etc. etc.). I have heard a cougar before. How do I know? Because it was a high pitched warbling scream, like you hear in the freaking movies when a woman is being strangled. Higher than a man's voice (no, I have not strangled a man, nor have I heard a real man being strangled; once again, just seen it in movies), but not as high as a child's voice (do I need to say here again so everyone gets the point; I have not strangled a child, nor will I ever strangle a child. I have heard lots of children scream, not because I was attacking them/assaulting them/around someone who was doing harm to them, but because little kids scream). If I had not heard from someone else that a cougar's cry sounded like (in their words) "a woman being strangled" then you know what? I probably would have thought that there was a woman being assaulted in the woods there, and gone running to try to help. Running through the woods with a cougar in it is a bad freaking idea, so I'm glad someone described it to me like that.
I don't give a *@$%^ what someone's gender is, personally. Men and women can both be right, and men and women can both be wrong. When someone describes a call as "sounding like a large housecat" and someone suggests that it might have been a cougar, I'll offer my opinion that it is not a cougar that the first person heard. Why? Because my experience with cougars says that cougars generally don't sound like housecats. Yes, I was not there, so I didn't hear it. But neither did anyone else here on the board who has posted in this thread (azpride, nonot, JamesLyding, myself, snakemarks, RedRoxx44, AZLOT69, and te-wa) with the exception of the Original Poster. You may have been around a cougar the other day, I don't know because I wasn't there. All I know is that my dog kicks dirt up over its crap.

who you be so hellbent on on arguing this or would you take HIS word for it?

Take a look at the Obama Preserves Bush Rule on Guns thread, or Wilderness Management (or Nude Hiking, or Scary NRA/Militia Types, etc.). The guys on the site aren't afraid to call into question what another guy says. Neither are the women on this site. Unless you've got a picture of your face for your avatar, or your username is gender-specific, it is honestly hard to know what anyone's gender is on the boards.
Jesus.


P.S. Sorry if this is a little over-the-top, but I got very little sleep last night, and having people think I'm intimately familiar with women being strangled on top of that kinda pisses me off.

If someone is being strangled...can they really make any noise???

Anyway, just like the prints in the mud I found that I thought were a cougar and others thought might be a large dog, and snakemarks scat sighting which she thinks is a cougar and I think is a coyote, there's no proof either way unless you sight the animal and get a photo of it so it's not worth the breath arguing about it. Currently there is only 1 photo of a mountain lion a HAZ hiker has captured and he said that he didn't even hear the animal when he shot (camera) it, he was just looking the right way at the right time.

my mountain lion encounter was also silent....except for the thumping of my heart

if that thing roared/screamed at me...guaranteed i would've soiled myself

In response to snakemarks:

This thread began as questioning whether a man heard a cougar or not. In response to you, Nonot suggested that cougar scat and prints were very similar to those of a coyote, and then the discussion returned back to disproving something that a MAN claimed (what a cougar sounds like).

Snakemarks, your argument that a womans opinion unjustly holds less credibility in a "man's world" stands true in many, many, many situations. That is the unfortunate truth. My girlfriend is a strong, intelligent woman and she points it out to me all the time. I don't feel like this is one of those situations, though.

Ok, I HAVE heard what I THOUGHT was probably a mtn. lion, and it DID sound like a woman screaming, which I have also mostly only heard in the movies, but also at the amusement park. Also, I have heard a woman screaming on a video of my 23-year-old daughter when she was bungie jumping. Oh, I am female, by the way, but I can't remember the last time I screamed.

Now this animal was screaming in the dark, when I was solo backpacking without a tent back in about 1975, in the Cuyamacas, near San Diego. I have told the story elsewhere. But I can tell you for certain sure, it sounded like a human screaming. I didn't see the cat, however, because it was dark, and I couldn't find any tracks the next day because it was pretty rocky around there--tracks wouldn't have shown up much unless a person was an expert tracker. So I don't really know for sure what it was. It wasn't a person, though. I would bet money on that, because I was pretty far from anywhere at the time, and there was no accompanying human noise of walking through the brush. It was VERY thick brush there.

And yes, of course, a woman being strangled probably would make almost no sound at all, other than some kind of wheezing. Duh. You people get into the goofiest arguments!

The one time I saw a puma up on Lemmon, it took off faster than I could say: "Hey, Look!"

Well, for what it's worth.. the only ones I've heard (and seen at the same time for positive ID) were in captivity, and well.. they sounded a lot like domestic cats.. Other than that, I've caught exactly 2 glimpses in my time in Arizona, but plenty of tracks.

Oh, there are plenty of wav's floating around of their growls