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  1. #1
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    Default Bobcat screaming

    I spent the last few days at Dolly Sods and there was some interesting nocturnal sounds. Aside from the usual coyotes and owls, I believe I heard a bobcat. Two nights ago it was a ways off. Last night it started a ways off then got closer until it sounded like it was right behind my camp. Very loud. Some other hikers came down the trail and then it stopped. I'm not 100% sure it was a bobcat, but I don't know what else it could be. It sounded like someone screaming. Is this just a normal night for a bobcat or was it trying to warn me that I was in it's territory? Or did I hear something else?

  2. #2
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    Bobcat most likely.
    Search youtube for "urban bobcat". I guy posted a video taken in his neighborhood of two bobcats fussing at each other in broud daylight. See if what you heard sounds anything like that video

  3. #3
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    Yes, almost certainly a bobcat. One of their calls does sound like a person screaming. Probably not for you, though, since bobcats will not disturb a human if they can help it, territory or not. You're lucky to have heard it.
    Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
    Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

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    I watched a few videos and I'm pretty sure it was a bobcat. There may have been more than one, but i'm not sure.

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    Yup. Urban bobcats was very similar to what i heard.

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    We heard a loud scream while camped on the Forney Creek Trail in the Smokies several years ago. Sounded like a large animal. It was dark, and we weren't going to exit the tent to look around, but I've always wondered what that was. Bobcat makes sense.

  8. #8
    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
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    How cool, lucky you ! I've spent alot time in the Dollysods did you do the 30 mile loop ? Awesome place for stargazing. Yes most likely a bobcat consider yourself fortunate enough to have heard this. They sound like a baby crieng sometimes.

  9. #9
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    I really didn't do a lot of hiking, I think I'm getting soft. Ha ha. I spent a lot if time relaxing around the campfire, and yes, the stargazing was excellent. Once or twice a year I take a solo trip to kind of clear the cob webs. It was nice to spend some time reflecting on what has been a crazy year, without all the outside noise that you get bombarded with in everyday life.

  10. #10
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    Awesome good for ya ! The Dollysods the highest plateau east of the Mississippi at a lil over 4,000'. Big blueberry fields , down to fern fields with ferns 6' plus, then you come to Big spruce trees 100' plus that only grows branches on one side because of the constant wind. Then across red creek to the end of the loop to the " sods" not my favorite part probably the length of a football field, I remember sticking my hiking pole in the mud checking for a route and my trekking pole went all the way down. But anyways don't tell anyone and you might already know but if you follow red creek there are some real gem campsites. Not on any map and I'm talking private, fire rings, rocks set up like chairs , big evergreen mossy ares right on red creek. It really is one the most beautiful diverse places I've been to.
    Last edited by JNI64; 10-11-2020 at 11:35.

  11. #11
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    I've been there a few times, always with the intention of putting some miles in. I enjoy the spruce forest so much that i usually end up wandering around spending more time looking at trees than I do hiking. The other morning there was a doe and fawn that lingered in my camp for about a half hour while I ate my oatmeal. It's things like that, that get in the way of doing any real hiking. Ha ha.

  12. #12
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    We set up base camp one week along red creek about 5 miles in,I was carrying a tipi size pack like 90 lbs. Very private only saw 3 people all week ,a couple came in then left and a gentleman came along and wanted to photograph the waterfalls we had exclusively to ourselves. But one morning I went out to pee and always look out before I exit and looked up to a deer staring right down at me,he gave me a crazy look and took off like a bat outta hell.I don't know if he scared me or i scared him more. They also have what is known as the "giant " species of crayfish about 5" or more twice the size as normal crayfish. They look like small lobster, I was dangling my feet in red creek getting water and one pinched my ankle. I looked underneath the rock and got a good look at it. I've since Google it and they are found in tennessee as well.

  13. #13
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    It may not have been a Bobcat that you heard. I hear Red Foxes all the time here in NJ. Here are a couple you tube Videos and compare what you heard to these:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYYHrG6UC4U

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyAlQWiuTy8
    Trail Name: Gadget
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    Agreed foxes can sound very unsettling.
    Last edited by Seatbelt; 10-12-2020 at 09:44. Reason: someone else posted same info right before me

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    Thank you, Pony, for starting this thread. I think one of my hiking mysteries is solved. I hike mostly on the Tuxachanie Trail in south MS. Occasionally (and usually in the same section) I hear a strange shreaking, crying sound. It's not foxes because we have those in my neighborhood and I know how they sound. I now think it's bobcats. Glad to figure that out!

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    It may not have been a Bobcat that you heard. I hear Red Foxes all the time here in NJ



    yeah....

    was kinda wonderin that myself about being a fox....

    i did not watch the video to hear what it was doing but i have a fox in the woods near my house and it bays a bunch.....

    mainly in the middle of the night....

  17. #17

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    Bigfoot being eliminated, only one other possibility outside of bobcat, someone playing a Wayne Newton album .....

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Traveler View Post
    Bigfoot being eliminated, only one other possibility outside of bobcat, someone playing a Wayne Newton album .....
    LOL or Metallica

  19. #19

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    JNI64, I’ll show you around some spots in Yellowstone if you’ll show me around the Dolly Sods. :-) I’ve always heard about the place, just never gotten there. You make it sound really interesting.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pringles View Post
    JNI64, I’ll show you around some spots in Yellowstone if you’ll show me around the Dolly Sods. :-) I’ve always heard about the place, just never gotten there. You make it sound really interesting.
    That sounds like a interesting proposition ! One i would probably take you up on . To Seatbelt, nothing wrong with Metallica been around for 40+years and still relevant to millions of fans 8 to 80......

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