At least thats what the Officer I talked to in Zephyrhills told me.Didn't sound like a bear to me or Alex for that matter.I returned from my little field trip about an hour ago after crossing some 250 odd miles of back roads in my target area for tonight.an area north of where I usually spend my evenings but south of the 2 most recent sightings I know of in florida from the Skunk ape homepage.based on our recent conversations on territorial travel and speed and some good data I used from An unnamed source(you know who you are,thanks again)I patterned my search on an area approx 60-100 miles south and east of the sightings.this also allowed for two earlier sightings to be mixed in in case what I believe about distance travel ability is way off.anyway east of Zephyrhills on S.R. 66 we continued doing what I've been doing for awhile now driving very slowly and listening,smelling looking at everything.near a farm approx. 6 miles out of town (have the exact spot as I used a bridge and a farmhouse as landmarks please note the closeness to a water sourse which I'm beginning to believe may be the best means of undetected travelfor our hairy friends in my neck of the woods) we heard the sound of a few cows in a state of agitation.followed by I sound I cannot Identify.a growling/hoot type sound.about five minutes of listening to this and checking the treeline beyond the pasture with night vision and binoculars the officer pulled up and asked what I was doing.upon my explanation.you guessed it :roll: "probably just a bear" and drove off .at this point I would guess his strobes had frightened off whatever was making the noise. After checking Arkys page (thanks extended to you also) for sound comparisons and her links to the other pages with animal sounds.I do not believe its was a bear,owl,wolf ,coyote,gator,COW,horse (well you get the picture)basically any large animal I could think of and from the sound it was LARGE.it also does not sound like any of the alleged BF recordings I can find anywhere on the net or my Wav.files of such that I have saved.so that leaves...What ? I admit to not being at a total loss on what it could be,as is Alex.the only one who seemed to know what it is was the cop,who couldnt be bothered to look or listen for more than 3 seconds.Ideas ?I'm really open to ANYTHING at this point.I really didn't expect anything other than the usual deer,gators etc. tonight.even trying to base my search on as much collective data as I could get after first planning this evening out.I'm a little freaked at the moment and that ain't easy to do.In hindsight ,which is such a wonderful thing,I should have turned on the camcorder to at least record the sound.I think that tommorrow I'll be purchasing the parabolic mic with the built in recorder.the bright side is that I'll be out again now Wed. night 25-50 miles south of this area to see if my theorie is a fluke or if I may actually be on to something.waiting for opinions/theories/help as yoyu can give it Thanks Jim

A growling hoot type sound? Weird...Jim, I say go back there with a tape recorder. We want to hear that sound!

And the cops reaction was typical, most likely he didn't want to admit it could be anything else and wasn't going to hang around and end up involved...Pansy... (I didn't say that)

How long was the duration of the sound and how far from the cows was it?
Was it a deep sound or high pitched? I know, you said you can't describe it, but darnit, that just makes me more curious!

That makes two of us.On a guess since I couldn't see anything I would say about 50 yards from the cows.We tried to get around behind it down some of the side roads, but didn't hear anything else after the cop told us to leave.It was higher in pitch than Than I can imitate.I can make the sound but the closest I can get to the pitch is by sticking my tongue against the roof of my mouth.which still isn't right. I hate the not knowing. thats the part thats driving me nuts right now.I really need to get back out there hopefully later today and failing that tonight. One other thing to note make sure of the town your near it was Zolfo Springs NOT Zephyhills(Duh!!)also I reported it to the BFRO to see what they make of it? I was actually kind of loathe to do this cause its not a very clear report as to what was actually out there.

Wow Jim, you could be on to something. It sounds like some thing I would sure want to get on tape and check out the area more, you might can find some tracks or tree breaks. Let us know if you get it on tape, cause I would sure love to hear it.

There is an area in Britain (I can't remember where exactly), where as the result of a 'break out' on a private estate, there are a number of wallabies living wild.

Every so often, someone walks into the local police station and says:

"I'm not drunk, but you guys are never going to believe me - I've just run over a kangaroo!"

The officers sit them down and explain that it was a wallaby, and everyone in the area knows about them.

But I got to wondering how many people *don't* report them because they don't think they will be believed - I can't guarantee that I would !

Paul

Hold on tight this little thread just got weirder.I just got back from going out there again.the treeline is about 200 yds from the cattle.about 1 mile down the road there is a bridge over "Charlie Creek"the land part or shore also goes under the bridge and would be very easy access for a large animal to move from one side of the road to the other unseen.looked for tracks breaks or any other sign I could find but nothing.I found some broken fenceline and some tree breaks on the south side of the road down some maintenence/fire roads but there is no twisting motion of the limbs that I could see and they were only a few feet off the ground in most cases.Weird Part I stopped at the local PD with every thought of being laughed at or told to take a hike, the lady cop behind the counter to my suprise took my card and went on to tell me about how in recent weeks something has been killing the young calfs and yearlings.she said they thought it was coyotes as they had shot one on her farm a few weeks ago.whats odd is that she said whatever was killing them ate only the insides (guts in her words)and left the rest alone.do coyotes do this?would they still attack a small cow since it is still much larger than they are ?the best part she said she'd keep in contact with me if she heard of anything and seemed genuinely interested in what was happening.unfortunately by contrast the male cop at the station gave me the look. :roll: .oh well I find myself lately assuming it par for the course.but I'll settle for that one person who calls me with concrete evidence as a bonus .have any of you heard of cows showing up as similar to deer kills? I've heard of very rare instances of a BF killing one but not of them eatin the insides of it ?

Well, if they do eat the insides of other kinds of animals, and I have heard of them doing that, I would think they might the cow too....

If you find a kill, leave it alone (!!) and keep a close eye on it, they may come back for the backstraps (tenderloin) and the rear. But they have been known to eat fresh liver and a few other organs.

Awesome that the cop didnt freak .... some will, some wont. The last cop i spoke with said "Oh, yeah, we get those kind of reports all the time" (refering to a BF type animal around houses in my main study area).

Cool Rob.It also gave me the Idea to try some of the smaller Pd's out in the small towns hoping they might be more receptive to the odd questions about things I ask.also I'm thinking of getting a police scanner to listen to as I drive around out in the boonies.hmmm..?

Just to keep everyone updated,I've listened to a plethora (Lupe do you even know what a plethora is ? No El Guape,I am not as smart as you. ) of wav. files and about as close as I can come to what was heard is a cross between a Boar and a Gibbon.(would that be a Gibboar or maybe a Boarbon . )also one other thing is that I found that after hearing something you can't id is that you get awful nervous out in the field afterward .every sound and shadow is suddenly ominous. sighwell at least I guess for awhile I won't be running towards reflectors on trees but away from them.