Today, on my way to the landfill, driving along a two lane paved forested Vancouver Island road, this animal darted in front of me and then just ahead of me, alongside and disappeared back into the bush.
All this in about one second.
My first reaction due to the hopping was it must be a rabbit, but it was too tall for that. 12 to 14 inches high.
Maybe a transplanted jack rabbit ? But it appeared to have too long a muzzle, too skinny and I’ve never known jack rabbits to be brindle coloured.
A fawn? It was hopping, but it was just too small to be a fawn.
The description of the suspect may be somewhat suspect but one thing is quite clear in my memory.
The creature let out a loud shriek “eeeeeeeeeeeeeh” as I passed by.
That was a Bigfoot, often called a Yeti. They look much smaller than you would have imagined, eh? Don’t let the size fool you, they are rather fearsome.
Some species have long ears, and can be quite small. Your description of the sound is not inconsistent with the noises made by some foxes in some situations. The coloration doesn’t rule it out either.
However, I’m not familiar with which species of fox inhabit that region.
I saw a fox cross the trail in front me once while mountain biking. I too thought it was a rabbit, then a cat with a really bushy tail.
Then it dawned on me.:smack:
I’ve heard a fawn do a very loud “eeeeeeeeeh” before. Kind of like a sheep but more of a wail. We’d just finished a trail run and my girlfriend was lying on a tarp to stretch, a momma deer passed by, but the baby was utterly terrified by the stretching-tarp-monster! :eek: It was too scared to try to catch up to momma deer.
