For whatever reason, some animals have screams that sound exactly like a human’s, and if you’re lucky (or unlucky for that matter), you might have heard these screams before and thought someone has been injured and needed help!
For most animals, screaming is a form of communication, either with their own species, with humans, and even with their own prey. According to Charles Darwin in his study The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, written in 1872, “With many kinds of animals, man included, the vocal organs are efficient in the highest degree as a means of expression.”
More likely than not, these animals scream for similar reasons as humans do. When us humans are scared or feel like we are in danger, we emit a piercing noise in an attempt to ask for help, or warn other people of the potential danger.
If you are curious about what animals sound like a person screaming, we have compiled this list to quench that curiosity!
Red Foxes
There are many horror stories from people who live near the woods and constantly hearing a screaming or crying woman. Little do most people know that these screams might actually be coming from a species of foxes called Red Foxes!
Most common reason foxes scream is to attract a partner. So your actually hearing their fox pick up lines ;).
This 10 second video uploaded by Daniel Izzo shows a red fox screaming. In 2013, Ylvis released a song called The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?). I guess now we know!
Gibbon Apes
Gibbon apes make this whoop whoop noise that resembles the noise people make when they are cheering on their favorite football team, or literally just anyone who is really excited about something.
In the video, the Gibbon even burps like it just downed a bottle of beer!
Bull Frogs
Yes, frogs do and CAN scream, and they sound a lot like crying babies!
Although not all frogs sound like crying babies, this specific species of frogs sound almost exactly like an infant in the middle of the night demanding a bottle. This scream is these frogs’ way of scaring predators away, or, like in the video, to express discomfort.
Bull frogs, and frogs in general, are normally found in ponds. So if you live near a pond and hear a crying baby in the middle of the night and you don’t have a baby, you can rest assured that it’s not a ghost baby!
Peacocks
Another animal whose screams sound like a crying baby is a peacock.
Alongside the flashing of their colorful feathers, male peacocks make piercing screams during breeding season to attract female peacocks. The female ones would hear this majestic scream and think, “Hmm, that sounds like an extremely attractive guy, let’s see where he is.”
However, to human ears, the male peacock screams sound exactly like a few months old baby having a tantrum, but it’s almost the same effect: “Hmm, sounds like a baby, let’s see where it is!”
Parrots
Parrots are very well known for their mimicking abilities. They can mimic almost any sound, from human noises to car horns. They do this using their thick tongues and positioning them correctly in their mouths to produce the same sound they heard.
In this video, a voice of a woman, seemingly being murdered and screaming for help to be let out can be heard. A concerned neighbor called on the police asking them to check on this guy’s home, where the noise was coming from. The police officers came and found out that it was actually a parrot making the noise!
Apparently, this guy has owned this parrot for over 40 years, and when he was a teenager, he taught it to scream for help and say “let me out” when it was caged!
Musk Ducks
While we are talking about the ability of parrots to mimic noise, there is also a species of ducks found in Australia that have learned to mimic passing conversations. They are called musk ducks, and in this video, you can hear a recording of them saying “You bloody fool.”
Now this is not technically a scream, but if they can mimic human speech, what’s stopping them from mimicking human screams? Be careful of the ducks, you bloody fool!
Penguins
Another type of bird who made it to this list are penguins.
While this is not observed all the time, this video captured a group of penguins just going about their day when one of them slips and lets out a sort of exasperated grunt that sounded like an extremely frustrated man, or a man who just stubbed his toe at something!
You will also notice that this incident surprised the rest of the penguins as they collectively made a cute almost harmonic noise, kind of saying “Oh no, are you okay?”
Seals
Seals are these cute and adorable animals you just want to cuddle… until they scream like a man!
The previous animals in this list were mostly women screaming and infants crying, but this time, we hear a seal screaming like a man in extreme pain. This video was recorded in the New England Aquarium, and visitors who witnessed it found it quite random and hilarious!
Koalas
Koalas are not normally obnoxious in nature. They are usually just chilling, eating eucalyptus leaves, and minding their own business. But when they yawn, which sounds more or less like a scream, they sound like an obtuse person whose main intent is to annoy people! But in reality, these little cute animals are just drowsy, and yawn just as loud as some humans do.
This video is uploaded by Lacey Irvin with the advocacy to save and protect Koalas and Koala habitats in Australia. A respectable cause accompanied by a cute video!
Angry Pugs
Pugs are a cute breed of dogs, with their little legs and big eyes, you can’t just resist them. Except when they cry and scream, where they sound like a toddler having a massive tantrum! (But I mean, little angry pugs are technically toddlers having a tantrum, right?)
There are many breeds of dogs that may sound like a human child screaming, protesting that they want ice cream for breakfast, but this little angry pug in the video just takes the whole cake. Even the sobbing and build up in the beginning sounds exactly like a toddler on the verge of a tantrum!
Goats
Admit it. When you clicked on this article, you were expecting goats. Because who would forget about the goat screaming meme in the early 2010s? No one. Maybe you weren’t on the internet yet, maybe you’re not a meme person, but basically, goats are known on the internet for their screams that sound like humans!
This video is a funny compilation of goat screaming videos on the internet. You will find different species of goats having the same ability to scream like a human, and while it may sound terrifying if you heard it out of nowhere, it’s most definitely entertaining and outright funny just watching them scream their lungs out.
