What could this sound be?

kerry · #1 05/01/10, 10:46 PM

This evening we were just finishing up letting our ducklings out for a swim in our plastic baby pool when my husband stopped what he was doing and asked if I heard that sound. I stopped and knew exactly what he was talking about. It was a LOUD breathing sound coming from the weed/tree area just 30 or so feet away. I asked him what it was and he said something big and told me to go back inside. Thankfully, we were pretty much done and went inside with the ducklings right away. What in the world could this be? It was big and no way could have come from a human. We live close to the Ohio River in a farming area.

RiverPines · #2 05/01/10, 10:49 PM

We had that happen once. It was creepy. Dont know what it was but it could of been anything from a frightened deer that froze hoping not to be seen, to a coyote that was doing the same thing!

Who knows what it was. Its best when the mystery just goes away though if you ask me. I hate things that go huff in the dark.

Minelson · #3 05/01/10, 10:53 PM

That is really creepy! Now I'm going to have nightmares....glad you and the duckies are ok!

dezingg · #4 05/01/10, 10:58 PM

Is there any chance you could find paw/hoof prints in the daytime?

#5 05/01/10, 11:01 PM

Probably a couple of teenagers .

kerry · #6 05/01/10, 11:05 PM

dezingg, we plan on looking tomorrow. unfortunately, though, we're supposed to be getting a lot of rain, so we might not be able to see any trace of anything.

Bonnie L · #7 05/01/10, 11:22 PM

If it was a sort of snorting noise, I vote for deer. They can be quite loud - & scary if you don't know what it is!

hippygirl · #8 05/01/10, 11:24 PM

It wasn't breathing we heard, but, years ago, we had just moved into a house way back in the woods...

The first night we were there, we walked to the edge of the woods and suddenly there was this LOUD screaming that sounded like it was within just a few feet from us. Needless to say, it didn't take us long to high-tail it back onto the porch, both of us white-faced and scared to death!

We never did figure out what it was. My FIL said it was probably some sort of large cat (cougar or some such), but, to this day (28+ years later), I've never heard of a sighting of any of the large cats in these parts.

Ah, the joys of country living!

kerry · #9 05/01/10, 11:28 PM

Bonnie, I tried to look up if maybe a big buck that I couldn't see could have been making a sound like this, but I couldn't find anything online. It wasn't a snorty sound, though.

kerry · #10 05/01/10, 11:29 PM

hippygirl, that sounds really scary!

Freeholder · #11 05/01/10, 11:33 PM

Kerry, you might have been visited by a bear. I've heard loud breathing from them before. Unlikely to have been a deer -- we have large numbers of deer here, and can usually get to within a few feet of them in the yard, but I've never heard any kind of breathing sound from one.

I would advise making sure you don't leave anything out that would be attractive to a bear -- no bird feeders, no garbage cans, no barbecue grills with the scent of food on them. Don't leave pet food out in the yard, either. You get the idea. If there's nothing there to attract them, bears will usually go elsewhere.

Kathleen

EDDIE BUCK · #12 05/02/10, 12:08 AM

I vote for bear to.My son use to hunt an area,that if you wounded a deer or killed a deer and didn't get to it pretty quick,a bear would beat you to the deer.He said the bear would be snorting and breathing real heavy and making mouth popping noises.To let other bears or anything else know that this territory is his,and its best to stay away.Maybe if you could get or borrow a trail camera and set close to where the noise came from,you may get a picture of that varmint.

7thswan · #13 05/02/10, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDDIE BUCK

I vote for bear to.My son use to hunt an area,that if you wounded a deer or killed a deer and didn't get to it pretty quick,a bear would beat you to the deer.He said the bear would be snorting and breathing real heavy and making mouth popping noises.To let other bears or anything else know that this territory is his,and its best to stay away.Maybe if you could get or borrow a trail camera and set close to where the noise came from,you may get a picture of that varmint.

Yes, they are called "dinner bell bears". They will hear a shot and try to beat the hunter to the kill.

MaineFarmMom · #14 05/02/10, 06:49 AM

It's probably a bear. The sound is called huffing. If a bear is huffing at you he's scared or nervous. A yearling bear huffed at me last summer. He most likely had been through family separation when his mother went into estrus. The next step is usually an intimidation charge with the bear slapping the ground in the last step then retreating.

Huffing was his way of telling you he was there and nervous. If a bear stands up it's not attacking (they attack on all fours), it's trying to get a better look at you. You did the right thing by going back to the house.

We had two bears here last summer. The yearling was a brat that got into anything it could find. It liked to play with empty grain bags. If I left the dogs in the house the older, big bear would appear out of the woods a few hundred feet from me and just watch me work. I kept a rifle with me for a few weeks but never felt I was in danger.

L.A. · #15 05/02/10, 09:29 AM

It was Oggie

beccachow · #16 05/02/10, 10:19 AM

I have never had truck with bears, but deer can do that snorty breathy sound...kind of unsettling.

chickenista · #17 05/02/10, 10:36 AM

I don't know where you live, but I vote bear as well.
DS and I got huffed by a bear last summer.
We just started singing and clapping a'la Woodstock hippies and wandered on back to the house.

Hooligan · #18 05/02/10, 10:49 AM

Coulda been a doe deer too. They will "blow" at you to both warn others of the danger and to try and distract you from their fawns if they are around.

Harry Chickpea · #19 05/02/10, 11:05 AM

Wouldn't want to leave out the possibility of moose... or very noisy mice.

The scream mentioned could have been a rabbit being attacked?

kerry · #20 05/02/10, 12:25 PM

no moose down here. I have heard the bear population is building back up. I would like to know what the huffing sounds like.
this was a steady breathing sound. it was like if you breathed out of your mouth with your teeth close together. hope that makes sense. again, it was so loud. we could hear it over the noisy ducklings splashing and "talking".
We went out there today, but we really saw nothing and didn't really know what to look for anyway. The area is dipped down and it is flooded with all of the rain we're getting.
hopefully we will have no other opportunities to figure this out. I have four children, ages 6 and under!
the only problems we've had with our chickens so far had to do with our own dogs.