Historically the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) was widespread throughout most of North America. Although government sources say wolves were eliminated from Illinois by 1860, newspaper articles show that wolves were still being killed in Illinois as late as 1930.

With wolves having been reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 wild wolves are spreading out into different states.  Northern Minnesota has also been one of the last havens for wild wolves in the lower 48.  There have been several reports for Illinois.

I have seen wild wolves in Yellowstone and with spending extended visits in wilderness areas out West I hope one day to get audio recordings.

In September of 2009 I spent the morning touring the Wolf Education & Research Center located in Winchester, Idaho

This is Randy Stewart, Education Coordinator, for the facility.

Copyright 2004-2010 by Stan Courtney. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

(Photo courtesy Valerie Abbott)

Cougar (Puma concolor), including black panthers, are fairly commonly seen in Illinois.  I am assuming black panthers are a melanistic color phase of the cougar. My purpose here is not to delve into the political aspects of these wonderful animals but provide information about possible misidentification of their vocalizations.

There is something in the woods of Illinois that screams. What that animal is can only be sorted out by comparing recordings with known animals. Although I have had four sightings of cougar in Central Illinois,  I have yet to get a good recording.

For  a previous post about cougar please see: Big Cat Crossing

Other articles concerning Illinois cougars include:

Cougar Watch

The beast of the bluffs.

Wildcat scare keeps Palmyra pupils inside / DNR officials doubt it

I am doing recordings in several areas with frequent cougar sightings so I hope to have sound files of these large cats posted soon.

Copyright 2004-2010 by Stan Courtney. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

There are seven species of wild felines in North America. They are the Ocelot, the Margay, the Canada Lynx, the Bobcat, the Jaguar, the Cougar and the Jaguarundi.  The two species most often encountered are the Bobcat and Cougar. For this discussion I will focus on the Bobcat.

Bobcat (Lynx rufus) are very widely distributed throughout most of the U.S, Mexico and Southern Canada. I have seen Bobcat in several states, heard them and photographed them in Illinois. I have yet to get a good recording. Witnesses many times report hearing screams that they reason are either bobcats or cougar.

The following pictures were taken in Central Illinois, in the Spring of 2005.  I was walking with my dog, who at the time was 5 months of age. As we came through a grassy knoll she froze and pointed towards a field of corn stubble. I happened to be caring my Canon DSLR with 100-400 zoom. I did not have time to extend the lens but instead pointed in the general direction and starting snapping pictures. I happened to be about 200 yards away from the animal and by its movement I did not think it was a coyote. Only after returning home and enlarging the pictures on my computer did I finally realize it was a Bobcat. The cats coloring pattern almost perfectly camouflaged it in the corn stubble.

Original.

And then with yellow highlighting to show the position of the cat.

I am doing recordings in several areas with consistent bobcat sightings so I hope to have sound files of these tough cats posted soon.

Copyright 2004-2010 by Stan Courtney. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

There are five species of fox in North America. They are the Red Fox, the Gray Fox, the Kit Fox, the Swift Fox and the Island Fox. The two species most often seen and heard are the Red and Gray Fox.

One afternoon I watched a Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) in an alfalfa field in front of my home give an extremely loud and scary vocalization. If I had not seen the sound-maker I would have never guessed that it was an animal as small as a fox.

Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)

Other than coyotes, foxes are the  animal that is the most mis-identified with bigfoot / sasquatch sounds. I have spoken with several excited witnesses who just knew what they recorded was a sasquatch but upon listening to their recordings it became evident that it was a fox.

For  previous posts about foxes please see:

Distant Screams in the Night

Not So Distant Screams in the Night – Update

The following recordings demonstrate a few of the many sounds the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) uses.

File # 07 – 2009.05.01 – Red Fox # 2
File # 06 – 2009.05.01 – Red Fox # 1
File # 05 – 2009.04.08 – Red Fox # 1
File # 04 – 2009.04.01 – Red Fox # 1
File # 03 – 2007.08.11 – Red Fox # 1
File # 02 – 2007.04.07 – Red Fox # 1
File # 01 – 2007.01.04 – Red Fox # 1

Copyright 2004-2010 by Stan Courtney. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

Coyotes (Canis latrans) have a very wide-spread distribution throughout most of North and Central America. Being such a wide spread species most people have heard coyote howls at sometime during their lifetime. Many researchers believe that sasquatch will join in with coyotes when they are vocalizing. So it is important to become acquainted with typical coyote howls.

For a previous post about coyotes please see: Singing Coyote

What I am presenting here is what I think are representative sounds of coyotes, both as single calls and as group choruses. Later on I will post non-typical howls.

Typical single howls can be heard in the following sound clips:

File # 16 – 2010.03.16 – Howl # 8
File # 15 – 2010.03.16 – Howl # 6
File # 14 – 2010.03.16 – Howl # 5
File # 13 – 2010.03.02 – Howl # 17
File # 12 – 2010.03.02 – Howl # 15
File # 11 – 2010.03.02 – Howl # 14
File # 10 – 2010.03.02 – Howl # 13
File # 09 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 14
File # 08 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 13
File # 07 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 12
File # 06 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 9
File # 05 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 8
File # 04 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 7
File # 03 – 2008.08.30 – Howl # 2
File # 02 – 2008.08.30 – Howl # 1
File # 01 – 2007.01.04 – Howl # 5

The following sequences are choruses of coyotes.

File # 36 – 2010.03.28 – Howl # 1
File # 35 – 2010.03.16 – Howl # 17
File # 34 – 2010.03.02 – Howl # 16
File # 33 – 2010.03.02 – Howl # 3
File # 32 – 2010.03.02 – Howl # 2
File # 31 – 2010.03.02 – Howl # 1
File # 30 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 19
File # 29 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 17
File # 28 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 16
File # 27 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 10
File # 26 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 3
File # 25 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 2
File # 24 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 1
File # 23 – 2009.07.26 – Howl # 2
File # 22 – 2009.07.26 – Howl # 1
File # 18 – 2007.11.02 – Howl # 1
File # 17 – 2007.05.10 – Howl # 1
File # 16 – 2007.05.02 – Howl # 1
File # 15 – 2007.04.30 – Howl # 1
File # 14 – 2007.04.23 – Howl # 2
File # 13 – 2007.04.22 – Howl # 4
File # 12 – 2007.04.22 – Howl # 3
File # 11 – 2007.04.22 – Howl # 2
File # 10 – 2007.04.19 – Howl # 1
File # 09 – 2007.04.07 – Howl # 1
File # 08 – 2007.03.30 – Howl # 2
File # 07 – 2007.03.30 – Howl # 1
File # 06 – 2007.03.16 – Howl # 2
File # 05 – 2007.03.16 – Howl # 1
File # 04 – 2007.03.13 – Howl # 1
File # 03 – 2007.01.05 – Howl # 4
File # 02 – 2007.01.04 – Howl # 6
File # 01 – 2007.01.04 – Howl # 4

The following sequences have my dog, Belle (a Karelian Bear Dog) joining in.

File # 07 – 2010.03.16 – Howl  # 11
File # 06 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 22
File # 05 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 18
File # 04 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 11
File # 03 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 5
File # 02 – 2010.02.01 – Howl # 4
File # 01 – 2006.04.04 – Howl # 2

Copyright 2004-2010 by Stan Courtney. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.