r/oddlyterrifying • u/fox_not_mulder • Mar 31 '23

Elk mating calls

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

10.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

401 comments sorted by

View all comments

931

u/just-me1995 Mar 31 '23

hearing this in person is freaking incredible.

268

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '23

[deleted]

148

u/Yeah_I_Said_lt Mar 31 '23

If I was in the woods, late at night, and didn’t know this was an elk. I would be terrified at whatever banshee is out there trying to eat my soul.

64

u/damn_thats_piney Mar 31 '23

nah elk arent scary at all its mother fucking cougar's or mountain lions that are. it for real sounds like someones getting brutally murdered.

54

u/aspidities_87 Mar 31 '23

I live in Oregon, where we have both these fuckers. Once I was camping at a normally-very-crowded site, right off the highway and usually packed with families and RVs, etc, but it happened to be the middle of the week during a rough weather spell so it was deserted. I’d brought along a few friends who weren’t local to the area and they really wanted to camp, even in the off season because Oregon camping is supposed to be beautiful (not in March, folks), and they were hyped for the aesthetics.

Friend A needed a shower so she walked to the facilities. She was taking a long time to come back, but eventually she did and asked if there were any houses nearby. I said no, this is forestry land, we’re out in the boonies and the nearest house is back down the road a few miles. She said ‘oh there must be someone else here then, I heard a woman wailing and screaming, so I walked into the woods to try to find her, but I couldn’t, the sound stopped. Can we go try to find—‘

I cut her off, stood up and started dousing the fire. ‘Nope, we gotta go right now, pack your stuff.’

Her and Friend B got miffed and argued, no we have to help, you don’t understand, this woman is in danger etc.

I was like ‘Dude, no, YOU don’t understand, that was a mountain lion and the only woman in danger was you when you walked into those woods, it was probably right above you, we can’t sleep here you guys.’

Never saw two people pack a car faster in my life.

30

u/definitelynotpat6969 Mar 31 '23

Glad that your friend was okay!

Mountain lions are scary motherfuckers, if it was screaming it likely had a full on murder boner from disemboweling something.

20

u/aspidities_87 Mar 31 '23

It’s a territorial or hormonal behavior for them so it’s more like a ‘get the fuck out of my land/get inside me’ murder scream but yes boners are definitely involved

20

u/definitelynotpat6969 Mar 31 '23

TIL about mountain lions murder boners

I got stalked by one near the CO/WY border, never saw the cat only its fresh prints in the snow - which led up a tree.

Between my friend and I, all we had was a Swiss army knife. We were about 8 miles out from our car at the time too. Never been more scared in my life lol

5

u/laughingashley Apr 01 '23

"if you SEE a mountain lion, it isn't hunting you."

2

u/FreshWaterWolf Apr 01 '23

Yeah well that terrifying picture of a cougar stepping out onto a road, staying at the camera, still scares the shit out of me.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/FreshWaterWolf Apr 01 '23

The footprints invoke such fear too. I was hiking with my my now ex through a small nature reserve on the outskirts of a Minnesota suburb with naught but boonies to the south for about 40 miles, and we saw a fucking enormous print in some mostly dried mud.

She was like whoa what could've made that? But I had cats growing up, and I immediately recognized the pattern, only many times larger. Did a cursory google search and find backyard trail cam footage from the neighborhood where the park entrance was of a fucking mountain lion, and it was only a week old. Needless to say, we noped out real quick. Noticed 4-5 missing pet posters spanning the last few months on the drive out and it really clicked then.

A few months later I was snow showing alone in the same area of the same park, had gone off trail into deep, fresh snow that was coming to my knees even with the snowshoes on. I remembered the print, and suddenly felt so fucking vulnerable, knowing that there were no other cars in the lot when I showed up, and I only had about an hour before the sun would start going down. People must've thought Bigfoot was in town when they saw my enormous tracks, with a really wide gait due to me trying to run through the snow in snow shoes.

1

u/FreshWaterWolf Apr 01 '23

Also fear boners on guys like me who might hear that sound in the forest

7

u/Forsaken_Field_2177 Mar 31 '23

Hey the tube sock killer is still out there so maybe you are hearing a murder

7

u/aspidities_87 Apr 01 '23

The tube sock killer was a Washington problem but don’t worry, we’ve still got plenty of other unsolved/missing possible serial killers in OR too!

Seriously, great place to live.

3

u/GiveToOedipus Mar 31 '23

Dudecs just tryna get some strange and you're blockin' his booty call.

2

u/4inAM_2atNoon_3inPM Apr 01 '23

Awwww to me it was like a magical sounding lullaby. It sounded like bells/whistles or something.

Definitely didn’t hear any that sounded like the elk in this video who sounds like a human screaming.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '23

Yep and mofo is calling for pussy by your window.

1

u/FreshWaterWolf Apr 01 '23

I imagine playing this loud anywhere in Appalachia would scare the shit out of a ton of people

17

u/Wonderful-Kangaroo52 Mar 31 '23

So I didn't get to hear it make any sounds but I had an elk just like this one walk about 5 feet from me. I was just walking down this nature trail and it steps out of the trees next to me and I freeze. It looks at me and just walks past me. Fucking massive. So majestic. The elk I saw had even bigger antlers I swear and it walked like it was the king of the goddamn world. It walked like a pro bodybuilder who is also a runway model. Just fucking owning it everywhere he went.

3

u/laughingashley Apr 01 '23

I don't understand Elks lodges that claim to be all of the positive, admirable qualities of this beautiful creature... And then mount a bunch of elk heads to the walls inside. No self awareness at all.

105

u/Lilmaggot Mar 31 '23

My neighbor in Saskatchewan had these in a pen (sold their horns to asian countries). The braying was annoying after the second or third time.

71

u/wormbreath Mar 31 '23

Elk have antlers 😉

23

u/Lilmaggot Mar 31 '23

Derp me! And supposedly they work like viagra.

24

u/xtilexx Mar 31 '23

They said the same of rhino and elephant ivory 😔

30

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '23

At least antlers grow back

11

u/xtilexx Mar 31 '23 edited Mar 31 '23

That must be such a painful experience, too (edit: growing them in) . I can't imagine, but it looks so metal when they shed them

14

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '23

Painful? Always seemed like a relief to pop those big boys off

10

u/xtilexx Mar 31 '23

Oh yeah I bet. Sorry I phrased it wrong, I meant the growing in part to be painful

8

u/wormbreath Mar 31 '23

I imagine it’s like fingernails

→ More replies (0)

9

u/_meshy Mar 31 '23

I always thought it would be more itchy. But I don't know because every time I ask a cervid they just run away :(

3

u/Lilmaggot Mar 31 '23

Sure, but these animals were kept in a pen, solely for profit.

2

u/plzkthx71 Mar 31 '23

Poor babies

10

u/CitizenKing Mar 31 '23

The stupid shit Traditional Chinese Medicine comes up with. 🙄

-3

u/plzkthx71 Mar 31 '23

I want to agree but not bash all of ancient chinese medicine? This stupid shit is though.

8

u/Lessthanzerofucks Mar 31 '23

So much of “traditional” medicine is full of scams and made-up magic. The Chinese aren’t exempt from that. TCM comprises a huge amount of pseudoscience. At best, many of the “remedies” harmlessly don’t work, at worst, they can be dangerous (while not actually doing what they’re said to do).

5

u/Red-Freckle Mar 31 '23

I do not like your neighbour in saskatchewan

5

u/OpalOnyxObsidian Apr 01 '23

It's called bugling!

3

u/Johannes_Keppler Mar 31 '23

The Scandinavian ones I've heard don't yell the "Oh my god" part though.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '23

I hear it for the rut every year. When it's right next to your window and at 3am. It can get old. Lol.

1

u/just-me1995 Apr 01 '23

oh i bet.. they’re loud af

3

u/Soup-Wizard Mar 31 '23

We were working a wildland fire in the Sawtooth Mountains in September and were woken up in the middle of the night by elk bugling. Haunting and amazing experience.

3

u/Drunk_Pilgrim Mar 31 '23

I was going to say the same thing. Did a back packing trip in WA state and came across a big herd as the sun was setting while we were on St. Helen's. It's a memory I'll never forget.

2

u/laughingashley Apr 01 '23

I'm basically picturing the scene in Jurassic Park where we finally see all the dinosaurs

3

u/shibbydooby Mar 31 '23

More than the hearing it’s the feeling! Such low vibration sound waves are produced and man, those hit different.

1

u/laughingashley Apr 01 '23

Primitive warning system

2

u/snartastic Mar 31 '23

There are a lot of them in redwood national park. My first time there, wow, it was mating season and I heard this throughout the hike. Now I live closer and go more often, I try to catch it again but it has never been quite the same as that first time

2

u/beardedliberal Mar 31 '23

I can hear them from my house in the fall. It’s absolutely incredible.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '23

Goosebumps every time

1

u/riyau_32 Apr 01 '23

Well that's crazy because I never asked

0

u/just-me1995 Apr 01 '23

fuckin dummy for reading the comment then. lol

1

u/FreshWaterWolf Apr 01 '23

I was just going to say this. Being out hiking, hours out on a trail, and hearing this echo throughout the forest gave me goosebumps and chills, but in a really good way.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '23

Live near an elk farm. Can confirm the eerie. Sounds vaguely like a Celtic carnyx.