What DOES the Fox Say?

One of the most memorable songs of 2013 was called What Does the Fox Say…this song must have caused a rise in users typing those words into their search engines, wondering what DOES the fox say? To answer that question, let me first tell a story.

Several years ago I was living in eastern New York State at a house that was on the east branch of the Croton River, part of the Great Swamp which is one of NY’s biggest wetland. (Read my article in Country Extra magazine.) For many nights I had been hearing a strange noise outside. It almost always woke me in the middle of the night, shattering my sleep with its scream-like quality. It sounded like the animal was moving as it called, perhaps a bird flying from one post to another. Except that I had never heard of a bird making that sound. Days turned into weeks and the mystery continued. What was the cause of that sound?

Then one night I heard it earlier than usual. Quietly I stepped out onto the front deck of the house, listening for the sound and trying to pinpoint its origin. When it went again, I flicked on the giant spotlight I was holding. Wow! There at the corner of the driveway, just outside of the woods, sat a lovely RED FOX! I was shocked, never imagining the noise was coming from a mammal!

So for those of you who have never had the chance to listen to a fox calling in the night… this is what they sound like. (From Lang Elliot of Nature Sound Studio) Try to listen at least 11 seconds in as the sound changes to the one I heard all of those nights. This is a hard-to-describe sound!

To read more about the red fox, Click here.