Cat Calls: Recognizing Mountain Lion Vocalizations

Reader Contribution by Maggie Bonham

Last night we heard chirping. Loud chirping we’ve never heard before in all our time living in the mountains. Loud enough to hear over the TV and over the fans as they worked toward cooling down the house. My husband muted the TV and turned off the fan. Sure enough, something was chirping out there. But what?

We’ve seen and heard all manner of critters while hunting, while at home, and on hikes. Deer and elk are commonplace. Pronghorn, no big deal. Snakes, toads, newts, salamanders, skinks, marmots, picas, squirrels, rabbit, prairie dogs, owls, birds of all kind, diurnal raptors, you name it. Bobcat, black bear, coyotes, lynx, fox (both red and gray), bobcat, moose, and mountain lions. I even swear I’ve heard wolves howl. I’ve owned wolf hybrids in the past. So, we’re not exactly new at this and we’ve had some interesting interactions when it comes to critters.

Mystery Chirps

This chirping bothered me. We went down the list of possible culprits. None seemed obvious. We thought about raptors like hawks and eagles, but it was way too late and the chirps didn’t match anything either of us knew.

It was late and time for me to milk. Something in the back of my mind told me to look up mountain lion. I did a search on “mountain lion vocalizations” and found an article from the Missouri Department of Conservation. Suddenly, I had a bad feeling when it mentioned that mountain lions sound like a bird chirping.

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