What Animal Is This?

Listen to this recording of an animal that we have been hearing occasionally at night.

play the recording

What animal is this? If you know, or you'd like to guess, please write me at:

Here are some answers that I have received:
1 One possibility is that it is a Fisher Cat... an animal that neither fishes nor is a cat. It is related to a wolverine. I suggest you do a Google search on Fisher Cat for more information.

I have read that they were extinct in this area for a long time and then were re-introduced quite some years ago and have since flourished.

I am suggesting this possibility because we had a very strange animal in this area that we heard for a long time. Then [a relative] saw it and then I also saw it... quite up close... it ran by me, fleeing from behind a car that had just started up, and ran past me not three feet from me. It was extremely fast. Definitely wolverine-like.

So... just it's just a possibility for what you are hearing.

2 Hawk?
3 Most definitely a raccoon!

Most likely a female trying to evade an amorous, insistent male... I've seen it a few times, and heard it way to many times (every year).

Once I saw a determined male back a female out to the end of a branch and they both fell to the ground from about 13 to 15 feet! Ouch! They picked themselves up and he kept chasing her and the noise you recorded continued for another 10 minutes until I went outside and shooed them away!

4 My best guess is raccoon.

What do you think?


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