What kind of thing SCREAMS at night?

[puredelite]

Cougars do frequent urban areas, often unseen. They find house cats and dogs are very easy prey. There is a web-site ( name escapes me at the moment( maybe google "eastern mt. lion?") that list documented sightings in most all eastern states. By your description of the sound it probably was a cougar. They do view humans as potential prey.

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Panthers, Mountain Lions, most big cats scream like that.

 

[dewey]

I wonder.........we DO have woods behind us, but we live in a regular old hood, houses close together, sidewalks out front. I haven't seen stray cats around here in years...

Hmm...something taking the stray cats maybe?​

 

[rockinpaints]

It's a red fox at mating time. Go to you tube and type the question in, there is a video and you can see the fox screaming. I used to hear that sound every evening, each night it was in a different location in the woods at our farm.
Good Luck

 

[MTopPA_18707]

I had a girl friend who was a screamer . . . does that count ?

-X

 

[Wild Trapper]

Quote:
Nope! My DW used to wake me up screaming when she'd have a bad dream, but that doesn't count either.

I'm guessing some kind of cat - bobcat or lion. I have a sister lives across the river from NJ and she has seen Mt Lions on her remote property. But without actually hearing it I'd only be guessing. Years ago when I lived back in PA, near where sis lives, my DW woke me up one night because she heard a screaming outside. It lasted something like the OP described. I went out and investigated, but by then it had ended. The next morning in the light of day I found where some animal had killed a rabbit and left some fur laying around. So, it could have been something killing a rabbit too.

 

[Kaneke]

sounds like no one has yet mentioned Siamese cats --- they certainly scream ! whether it is a territorial fight (male or female), or a female in heat ...

luckily one of my females "sang" alto ... but Keke was a screaming coloratura soprano, and she'd scream up and down the scale for minutes on end

indoor cats ... no kittens resulted but we had to put up with the serenades several times of year

 

[bkwurth]

My vote is a panther. I've never heard of another large cat that actually sounds like a woman when it screams.

 

[txhomegrown]

They tell us we don't have cougars around where I live too. But after hearing those god awful screams one night, the next day I found cat tracks as big as my hand. Oh wait, that couldn't be we don't have cougars here. It must have been a rabbit wearing fake cougar feet while it was being fought over by a coyote, a screech owl, a raccoon and a horny deer. While a peacock watched and made bets with the chickens as to who would win. Problem solved.

 

[VI KING RANCH]

Probably just an owl watch out they will pick off your chickens one by one.