Late on Monday night, I was stumbling along on a dark trail in Yosemite National Park. This was in sugar pine forest around 6000 feet elevation and I heard an animal scream nearby. At first I thought it was a mountain lion. It was moving parallel to my trail and off to the left by 75 yards or so. After I heard the noise several times, it moved around behind me and off to the right, and then it disappeared.
Later, after I returned home, I listened to some sound recordings of various animal vocalizations, and I concluded that it was a grey fox.
I did not bother to try to point my camera anyplace because it was so dark (except for my headlamp). However, I think I should have switched the camera on for video mode, and the built-in microphone should have picked up the call. There ought to be a better way to do this. I have a tiny voice recorder and a shotgun microphone, but I had not brought them along on this trip. That would have been impractical when hiking by headlamp.
Any better ideas?
–B.G.–
