A Walk on the Wild Side

Texas bobcat, photo by Matthew High

And the winner is…
Patricia Lichen's cat! Patricia commented on my previous post about sounds in the night that she wasn't sure what made the strange call

but her cat seemed to!

Her cat was justifiably upset because the call we heard before dawn in the woods of Bentsen State Park was a bobcat (Lynx rufus texensis). Reportedly, bobcats are fairly common in this part of southeastern Texas, near the Rio Grande. According to Wild Mammals of Missouri, Schwartz and Schwartz, 2001, March is the peak of the breeding season in Missouri. This was March 16 in Texas, so it's possible that the Pauraque wasn't the only amorous singer on the prowl.

Bobcats have the widest range of all the wild cats of the Americas; from southern Canada—where they may compete with the larger Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), down to central Mexico. That bobbed tail usually helps distinguish a bobcat from a feral domestic cat, but a bobcat is also about twice the size of a pet cat: 17-23 inches tall and between 11 and 30 pounds. According to Wikipedia's article, it is absent from most of Missouri, but Wild Mammals of Missouri, other sources and experience disagrees. I saw my first bobcat in Jefferson County, Missouri, crossing a country road at night. Friends in Dent Country tell me they see them on occasion. We didn't get to see this one, but I'm glad we heard him.

Thanks to Matthew High for his great photo of a bobcat seen in west Texas in September.

The Macaulay Library of Animal Sounds

Sapsucker Woods, Cornell University          photo by eflon

We were just settling in for the night. We had already tested the hammocks to see how far you could swing someone before she'd land with a thump. Our scout leaders were tucked into a cabin, farther down the hill. We were on our own. Suddenly, we heard the most hair-raising sounds! We had no idea what creature it was, but there would be no sleep that night.

I've wondered about those shrieks for a few short decades, and I think now I can identify the shrieker. After searching the Macaulay Library of Animal Sounds from Cornell University, I can say that we probably were hearing two wrangling raccoons, although there was more screaming than you hear in this recording. The Macaulay Library is, "The world's largest natural sound and video archive of animal behavior."

There are other sounds on my Website Wednesday featured site that are not conducive to sleep, like this Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, recorded in--of all places--Sapsucker Woods, Ithaca, New York. Another animal sound that scared the living daylights out of me was the snort of a white-tailed deer. Call me a wimpy kid if you must, but that snort can be spine-chilling!

You can select broad categories like arthropods, or fish, or search by common or scientific name. Notes are available giving details of the equipment used and sometimes the recordist or videographer. One recording I found is an 87 minute interview about amphibians held in Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge, a really fascinating place in southern Arizona. Frogs caterwaul in the background.

There's lots of video too, including this one of a beautiful mountain lion. The video was shot by Tim Barksdale, former St. Louisan and Webster Groves Nature Study Society member. Video and audio from this site is copyrighted, so I can't post it, but hopefully you'll use these links and enjoy them.

I was able to embed the mountain lion audio from the Missouri Dept. Conservation's article about the confirmed cougar sighting in Chesterfield (St. Louis County, MO), that I wrote about a few days ago. Click the play button below. If we had heard anything like this, we would never have camped again!


Courtesy of Missouri Dept. of Conservation.