What is this sound in the woods at night? Sounds like an animal barking/coughing as it wanders around.?

Question

We have shined a flash light on it's eyes and it seems to be maybe a little less than knee height. We know there are coyotes out here but could it be the same animal? It wanders around slowly at night making a strange bark that almost sounds like it's coughing something up. Never heard it make any other noise. Last night we were sleeping in a tent on the lawn and were awakened because it was next to the tent. By the time we stood up to look out the screen window, though, it had already ran into the edge of the woods and started barking and circling again.

Any ideas what animal this could be?

Answer 1

If it's not a coyote, it may be a fox. They make a noise like you describe. They used to scare the heck out of me when I was a little kid, when they'd bark near the house in the middle of the night.

This may help you to identify it. If you can manage to shine a very bright light in it's eyes (not sure whether your flash light will be strong enough or not), foxes eyes shine a very bright yellow. Unfortunately, I don't know what colour coyotes eyes shine, but since you have seen them before, you may already know that, so you can compare the two.

We used to do a lot of spotlighting where I grew up, and animals can often be identified by the colour of the eye-shine, as long as you already know what types of animals live in the area.

Whatever it is, it may be sick, as I imagine it's coming near houses looking for foodscraps or maybe hoping to catch a chicken, if you happen to keep chickens or even rabbits etc..

Hope that info. helps, and good luck identifying it.