What Noises Do Foxes Make?

Foxes use various different sounds to keep in contact with other members of their family. They do not call out in chorus together like the wolves or coyotes and have a wide array of sounds. Of all the known fox calls, Barks and wails are the most common. The sounds grade into each another and are either contact sounds or interaction sounds.

Their Barking call resembles a dog's bark and is the most common vulpine noise. It spans three to five syllables and is often used to keep in touch at greater distances. Their alarm bark is monosyllabic and adults use it to warn cubs of danger. At closer range it sounds like a rasping, muffled cough but from further away, it sounds rather like a sharp bark. Kits at play and adults during courting season make a stuttering, throaty noise. This sound is called Gekkering and is usually seen in aggressive encounters. The vixen's wail is very long, drawn-out and monosyllabic and is made by a vixen during the breeding season. However, it is also made by male foxes though the reason behind it is still unknown. The most uncommon of all fox sounds is the Purr which has been recorded only with domesticated foxes on being cuddled.

Foxes bark just like small dogs, and female foxes in heat(which only occurs in late winter-early spring, once a year, unlike a domestic dog)will make a loud screaming noise to attract a male. Red foxes are more vocal and more prone to barking than gray foxes. Foxes also whine, whimper, and growl like dogs, and an angry fox will sometimes hiss like a cat.