Fox noises

[lapwing_girl]

Wondering if anyone could help me out with some identification of fox calls??
There appears to be two sorts of calls which i've been hearing at this time of year and was wondering if one was a dog fox and the other a vixon? There's a yap yap sort of a bark and then there's what can only be described as a howlling banshee call. Any ideas anyone??

[Gill Catton]

foxes seem to have an incredible vocab ranging from yips, chirrups and almost whistling noises to a barking similar to that of a small dog to indeed a blood curdling scream, every year I seem to hear another noise and when I don't recognise it and I track it down and it turns out to be a fox!

[The Black Rabbit]

The howling banshee call you describe so well is usually the vixen screaming - letting any dogs know she's ready to mate.
Its very often heard in the winter... usually December -February time.

Hope that helps?
Doug

[agrumpycow]

The screaming vixen noise can be quite scary, almost human baby-like. I remember the first time I did a night shift on my own in a old house hundreds of years old.
It took me a good half hour to find the noise was coming from foxes in the garden, I was on edge for the rest of the night!

[mh68]

I think the yap-yap type call is classed as a contact call. Here`s a link to various Fox calls some of which are classified into various types....

The Fox Forest

Mark H

[m1.carson]

Hi,

The call I hear most sounds more like a seal, it's the female calling, can't imitate it on line.

Max.

[dog stone]

The yap, yap, yap, is a dogfox, the howl/scream is a vixen, they are mating at this time of year so very vocal now.

[Words]

Noisy indeed. I even had one 'gekkering' outside my window the other night. I presume the vixen seeing off an unwelcome male who was lurking in the corner!

[tawnyman]

Thanks for the link to the fox noises, mh68. I seem to hear the 'territorial' cry from time to time in my urban garden. It was very disturbing being woken to it at 5 in the morning. Not sure what the pet rabbits down in the garden thought of it too!

[mh68]

Originally Posted by dog stone

The yap, yap, yap, is a dogfox, the howl/scream is a vixen, they are mating at this time of year so very vocal now.

I always thought that too, but according to David MacDonald in his book "running with the fox" both sexes can make either of these calls. I recall the classic "howl" is said to be a territorial response.Spot on about them being very vocal at this time of year, at the moment i`m hearing Foxes most nights calling from the nearby fields.

Mark H