This article is over 5 years old and may contain outdated information.

Wildlife

Video of the week: what does the fox really say?

  • Feb 11, 2016
  • 270 words
  • 2 minutes
Expand Image
Advertisement

Foxes look a lot cuter than they sound.

In movies, foxes are often portrayed as slick characters, capable of conning others with their smooth voices and glossy fur coats. Or else they’re seen as adorable balls of fluff, perfect hypothetical pet material. Neither of these images can prepare you for the distinctive fox “scream.”

The scream isn’t the only sound a fox makes, of course. While their vocalizations aren’t quite as varied as the average dog, they can bark, yip, and whimper.

The scream, though, is in a category all its own. Heard most often during breeding season, the sound is so abrasive that it’s sometimes mistaken for a human in distress.

As Dan Nosowitz wrote in Popular Science,

The red fox does not have a mellifluous voice; even when it’s happy, it mostly sounds like it’s being strangled. It would be awkward to teach your young child that the cow goes moo, the frog goes croak, and the fox goes YAAGGAGHHGHHHHHHAHHHH!!!!!

In the video above, a fox plays with a dog in a yard, until the dog scampers back to the house, whereupon the fox lets out a scream in protest. In the video’s description, the uploader writes that after the interaction they would regularly “hear that crazy bird-like scream the fox makes.”

There’s many different way to describe the fox’s odd sounds. If you’re Norwegian comedy duo with a viral video under your belt, you might hypothesize something more along the lines of: jacha-chacha-chacha-yow.

Advertisement

Are you passionate about Canadian geography?

You can support Canadian Geographic in 3 ways:

Related Content

Wildlife

Broughtons in the balance: As salmon runs fail, grizzlies are on the move

Salmon runs are failing and grizzlies seem to be on the move in the islands between mainland B.C. and northern Vancouver Island. What’s going on in the Broughton Archipelago?

  • 2960 words
  • 12 minutes
Red fox napping on car

Wildlife

Foxes are self-domesticating in the U.K, so why not Canada?

As foxes move from the forest to the city, they show more doglike traits and appear to be naturally self-domesticating in the U.K. — but the same isn’t happening here at home

  • 1276 words
  • 6 minutes

Wildlife

Do not disturb: Practicing ethical wildlife photography

Wildlife photographers on the thrill of the chase  — and the importance of setting ethical guidelines 

  • 2849 words
  • 12 minutes
A grizzly bear lies dead on the side of the road

Wildlife

Animal crossing: Reconnecting North America’s most important wildlife corridor

This past summer an ambitious wildlife under/overpass system broke ground in B.C. on a deadly stretch of highway just west of the Alberta border. Here’s how it happened.

  • 3625 words
  • 15 minutes