What animal was making this growling snuffling sound outside my building the other night?

I’m in a semi-rural area on the edge of a small town. The night before last I was out in my building doing my thing (drinking beer and writing, mostly) and kept hearing this unfamiliar animal noise. The best way I can think to describe it was sort of a non-menacing growl. It was fairly constant, like this was just a normal communication as opposed to a warning, with this almost-snorting quality reminisent of a pig. I am fairly sure it wasn’t a pig, because even though our zoning laws are lax, pigs are discouraged in town and anyway it’s hard to keep a pet pig without the neighbors knowing.

The semi-feral cat who hangs out here (he’s wise to traps, and becomes very pointy when we try to pick him up) does not allow cats and dogs in our yard (he has a “I’m going to get my food-givers and they’re going to kick your ass” yell that he does) and besides it did not sound like a cat or dog growl, unless they had asthma.

Whatever it was, it was moving around the building, and it didn’t sound real big. I’m in the lower midwest with your the standard smaller mammal assortment. I’ll hear raccoons and skunks making their chittering and chirping noises, and there are possums wandering around in their quiet daze. Supposedly we now have bobcats, although I’m not sure where. The coyotes around here aren’t urbanized, and I never see them in town, although foxes suddenly are everywhere. But it actually didn’t sound big enough to be a fox, although on the other hand I’m always surprised at how tiny foxes actually are. And it certainly didn’t sound big enough to be a coyote.

Eventually, I heard two of them, and they were getting louder, so I flung open the door and did the Do I Have To Come Out There thing, and they went quiet. The area where the sound was coming from is dark, and of course I didn’t have a flashlight, so I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t hear anything else from them the rest of the night, and nothing snatched me when I left the building to go into the house. I had a look around in the daylight, but there were no obvious clues, not that I have any tracking skills. I’ve gone through various online animal vocalizations, but somehow I’m not having any luck.

Any ideas? Do I need to be scared?

It was me, sorry. I blame the bean and lentil curry.

Damn you.
But I guess this means I don’t have to be scared.

Opossum?

This time of year in western PA, it would either be raccoons, possums, or skunks.

Raccoons are the loudest, skunks leave behind odor, possums are pretty quiet.

Another thought.

Just before sunrise I’ve startled whitetail deer in our yard. They will snort/snuffle/ paw the ground.

It might have been a feral pig. The pig population is growing and they’ve been seen all throughout the south. They can go as far north as the Great Lakes region, although they’re more common in the warmer climes.

It might have been bears, looking for food. It’s that time of year.

But both of these animals are large and destructive. I would think you would have seen traces of them in the morning.

OTOH, It might have been a couple of dogs play growling and goofing around. Since there was more than one, and they left when you yelled at them, this is my bet.

Note that all of those animals are potentially lethal. If you’re going to confront them blind, you might want to stock up on bear spray.

I’d bet on a coon. One way to tell is smell - if they get anywhere near an open window, you’ll smell them, a stinky, fishy, gamy smell like a really dirty dog.

We used to get the occasional coon (in a fairly dense surburban area with greenbelts) that would come up on the porch to get cat food. If the window was open and I was sitting in my comfy chair, there would only be three or four feet between us, and I’d literally have to hold my nose or scare the stinker away.

We had skunks, too.

Some possibilities to check:

Animal Sounds at Night
What’s that sound? 7 wildlife calls you might hear in your backyard
Nocturnal Animal Sounds of New York State
Strange Animal Sounds That Make You Jump in the Woods
Nocturnal Animal Sounds
Raccoon Sounds
Skunks at Night

Werewolf?

Thanks, Little Nemo. Nope, none of those (although hearing the fox bark–as opposed to the fox-screaming-bloody-murder these sites usually feature makes me realize I have heard that on other occasions).

The closest I can find to the sound is a feral pig, but what I heard was missing the angry quality and random squeals. And like someone said, a feral pig would have left some trace.

I did consider a deer, although I’ve not known them to come into the yard, but it didn’t sound big enough.

Dogs play-growling could make sense, especially given that dogs can have different voices and maybe these happened to sound like canine Rod Stewarts, but the sound was continual with no breaks to take breaths.

The other possibility I considered at the time was that it was someone just trying to scare me, it being close to Halloween and all, but the sound of it crunching around the leaves just didn’t indicate anything as big as a person.

If I hear it again, I will attempt to record it. Thank you all for your ideas.

(And I’m pretty sure I’m not in danger. I got into near hand-to-hand combat with a pair of raccoons a few weeks ago over a stray litter of kittens–the kittens and I won–and they’re about the nastiest thing we’ve got, and I’ve since put one of them in witness relocation and haven’t seen the other.)

:slight_smile:
I was out in the yard one night without a light, and a barking deer scared the hell out of me.

Well if it was UK I would have said Hedgehogs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/European_Hedgehog

[QUOTE=carnivorousplant;19730044…a barking deer…[/QUOTE]

Thanks! Now I have another way to explain away my flatulence - “Damn barking deer!”

You are very welcome.

Take a flashlight next time? Or your cell phone and try and snap a pic before you start yelling.

Was anything dug up at all?

It was years ago when I lived in the woods. I should have taken a flashlight. I wasn’t about to yell and give the bear/cougar/monster my location. :slight_smile:

I don’t know if porcupines snort, but they’re nocturnal and not very big.

Not you Flytrap :wink:

Run that by again?