Animal That Has Call That Sounds Like Barking in Georgia

"Dog goes woof. True cat goes meow. Bird goes tweet, and mouse goes squeak."

Such are the first lines of divine wisdom imparted by "The Flim-flam," a song by the Norwegian variety act Ylvis that was released this week and has since gone viral. But what noise does the titular animate being make? Here, Ylvis takes some liberties as to "what the fox say," including noises that are difficult to transcribe, just include "wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-prisoner of war!" and "fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!"

While the video is pretty crawly, it doesn't correspond real flim-flam vocalizations. LiveScience turned to a play a trick on researcher — and pulled together some videos of fox vocalizations — to find out what foxes really sound similar. [x Nearly Successful Viral Videos Ever]

Cherry foxes (Vulpes vulpes), the most common foxes throughout the world, have a wide diverseness of vocalizations, with as many as 20 different calls depending on how ane defines them, said Stephen Harris, a biologist at the University of Bristol, England, who has studied their vocalizations. They use these calls to find mates, interact with rivals and communicate inside their family groups. This variety befits their role as highly social mammals, Harris told LiveScience.

Frantic screams

The loudest and near prominent audio made by foxes is the scream or contact call, typically used by vixens, or females, when they are ready to breed in the late wintertime and spring, Harris told LiveScience. This "blood-curdling" call "sounds a scrap similar somebody being murdered," he said. The call is designed to travel long distances and summon suitors. "They are looking for the best play a joke on to mate with," Harris said. The "scream" tin can also be used by males, and by females at other times, though.

One time in the 1970s, Harris tracked a trick through a cemetery, and lost track of the animal — It was a very nighttime and common cold night. Of a sudden, "a vixen came down about 5 feet [1.five meters] behind me and screamed in a very loud vocalism — I leapt straight out of my skin," he said.

Foxes likewise normally bark, which is generally used as some other type of contact call to achieve out to friends or rivals, Harris said. The bark sounds like to that of a domestic dog, except slightly college pitched and sometimes shrill. Studies on other species of foxes testify that the animals can recognize each other based on their calls, which isn't that surprising, Harris added.

Flim-flam cubs also bark, in a way that's like to adults. "Even when they're newborn and blind they call to their mother to go along in touch on," Harris said. The bark sounds a trivial bit similar "wow-wow-wow," he added. .[Video: Fox Uses Clever Hunting Tricks]

The animals also emit a wide variety of whines and squeals that have dissimilar meanings that tin can modify based on the context and the fox's body language. For example, squeals can be used to show that 1 flim-flam is submitting to some other. Only foxes besides squeal when they are excited, Harris said. Perhaps this is the flim-flam version of "squee."

In addition to growling, foxes tin also make a guttural sound in the dorsum of their pharynx called "clicketing," which generally happens during the mating season, Harris said. "Nosotros don't know quite what information technology means," he added.

Why not improve known?

Every bit the song notes, the characteristic sounds of other animals are improve known, or at least codification in a recognizable form of onomatopoeia like "woof" or "meow." But why aren't fox calls better known?

The difficulty of putting fox sounds into words is certainly one obvious reason. Information technology isn't exactly easy to describe a scream, for case. Only here's an attempt: "WRAHHHHHGH!!!!" Foxes are wildlife likewise and oasis't been successfully domesticated in the same way every bit dogs were from wolves, making them less familiar to earlier humans who get-go made up the words to describe the sounds made past other animals.

"If you follow an individual fob effectually at night, most nights the foxes won't make a call at all, or it'll be very soft," Harris said. "Foxes are moderately quiet animals."

Finally, despite having a variety of vocalizations, foxes communicate even more with scents, and don't make noises that ofttimes.

Email Douglas Primary or follow him on Twitter or Google+ . Follow us @livescience , Facebook or Google+ . Commodity originally on LiveScience.