How Vocal Are Cougars?

Pete E

New member
Most of the "old world" big cats are fairly vocal ie Tigers and Lions roar fairly frequently, Leopards make a "sawing" noise. How do Cougars compare and what "calls" do they make?
I guess they call for a mate? Is it the male or female or both that call in such circumstances? What about to hold a territory outside the mating season?

Thanks in advance,

Pete
 
Cougars are not one of the “roaring” cats. There are many stories in American folklore about cougars screaming in the night, with a sound similar to a woman screaming. Most of them are just that; stories. Most of the old time professional cat hunters (Ben Lilly, Lee Brothers, ect) claimed that the cougar made no sound. The “screams in the night” were usually attributed to screech owls. The only time I heard what was obviously a cat scream in the mountains, it turned out to be a bobcat.

I have heard cougars that were treed by dogs make a sort of yowling sound; sort of like an over grown Siamese house cat. They will communicate with each other (females to cubs, and adults to adults) with a chirping sound that can be mistaken for a bird.
 
You might want to check out findsounds.com they have some so called cougar sounds and one kind of sounds like a women screaming.
 
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