When convenance season rolls effectually, foxes tend to get a bit mouthy – and what comes out sounds eerily homo. This is what the fox says: a high-pitched " YAAGGAGHH " rivalled simply by the screams of the almighty marmot.

Chances are you've seen this clip pop upwards on social media this week, but information technology was actually filmed dorsum in 2010 past Ki Steiner. And d espite what many commenters have suggested, this is not attempt by the trick to phone call its canine best friend for some more playtime.

The screech in the video is known as a "vixen'southward weep", and you'll hear it about often around springtime, when foxes are out luring mates. Information technology'due south also used later in the season when unwanted visitors need to be chased away from young kits. And it'southward non but females doing the screaming, though scientists are still trying to work out why male foxes as well use the call from time to fourth dimension.

"This trick lives most our house and has interacted with our dog quite a bit," Steiner explained. "But this was definitely the craziest encounter we take seen betwixt them. Nosotros now regularly hear that crazy bird-like scream the fox makes."

The nearly likely explanation is that Steiner's dog simply got too close to the vixen'due south den, just it'due south also possible that the fox was on its own mate-finding mission when the two animals crossed paths.

The call is certainly blood-curdling enough that information technology regularly causes warning. And it's not hard to understand why:

"The first time I heard a fob scream, I idea information technology was beingness attacked and called the constabulary," says UK local Martha Louise Ryder, who has had foxes denning under her belongings for nearly two decades. "I felt like a consummate numpty."

Foreign as it may be, a bark or weep is far from the most peculiar sound you'll hear from a fox. The animals are highly territorial and have a whole repertoire of noises for aggressive encounters. One of the near mutual is "gekkering", a clickety-clack call and response that sounds more bird than mammal:

__

Height header prototype: John Ryan, Flickr