92 ] Animals in the Wild 



The cat mews in friendly conversational tones; it purrs with 

 contentment and yowls when it is hurt, it howls and screams in a 

 fight. Its love serenade is shrill and agonizing to the human ear. 



The mammals of our forests and plains come near to duplicating 

 some of these sounds, and they have other kinds of vocal expression 

 as well. Some mammals roar, some whistle, some scream, some yap, 

 some bleat, others are virtually silent. 



One of the more unusual sounds is sufficiently well known so 

 that even children hear about it. This is the call of the moose. 

 Many hunters practice it diligently in the hope of luring one of 

 these massive creatures within gun range. The hunters learn to 

 imitate the female, whose call is like the bawl of a domestic cow. 

 The bull moose, for all his size and strength, usually emits nothing 

 more than a feeble, coughing grunt. 



CRY DANGER! 



To a child it is especially touching to note that frequently 

 the calls and cries of wild animals serve to alert their family to 

 the approach of danger. When the marmot, standing like a sentinel 

 at a lookout post, gives his shrill warning whistle, not only the 

 marmots but mountain sheep and other creatures as well take 

 cover. A bear, a wolf or a man! may be approaching. 



Shrill, also, is the whistle of the marmot's cousin, the woodchuck. 

 With more abandon than good sense, it whistles and grinds its 

 teeth while trying to escape from an enemy. Gray squirrels give 

 the alarm with a kind of flat rasping bark finally prolonged into 

 a whining snarl. 



Even the customarily silent mammals find their voices when they 

 are wounded. The scream of a white-tailed deer struck by a bullet 

 can be heard half a mile away, and a rabbit often gives a piercing 

 squeal when hit. But mammals do not always depend on their 

 voices to express emotion. The cottontail rabbit thumps the 

 ground with a hind foot when he senses danger. The beaver slaps 

 the water with its tail. As for deer and sheep, they stamp with a 

 fore foot when they are frightened. 



A museum staff guide has often proved to me that animal 

 sounds have a powerful appeal for children. As he takes visitors 



