BFRO #18958: Screaming and eyeshine witnessed by hunter in the Big Hole Mountains

📍 Location

📝 Description

Incounter happened on 7th of November 2006. I voted in the Idaho election at 8:00 a.m. Then I went straight home and loaded my two horses to go elk hunting for 3 days in the Big Hole Mountains east of where I live, approimately 25-30 miles away. I had camp all set up by noon, wo I decided to go for a horse ride and maybe hunt a little before dark.The creek drainage I planned to hunt was Big Burns Creek. I rode up this drainage as far as Bear Trap, the third canyon coming into this drainage from the west. I tied the horses up at the mouth of this canyon and decided to hunt for a few hours before it got dark on the ridge on the north side of Bear Trap and south of Temple Peak.I arrived back at the horses just as it was getting dark. I took my backpack off and tied it in the saddle of the horse I had ridden in on, so I wouldn't have to pack it going out. I slung my rifle over my shoulder and got on my second horse. I had ridden approximately 1/2 mile when the encounter took place.Riding south, with Big Burns Creek running parallel along my left side and making its normal loud babbling sounds cascading down over the many rocks, just as I was entering the confluence of where Little Burns Creek came down from the east at my left and entered into Big Burns Creek. I heard this very loud, voluminous, high pitched, slightly raspy scream. This scream completely over powered the noise coming from the creek. It screamed again again. Each scream lasted 3-4 seconds. The screams didn't noticebaly change in pitch or tone from beginning to end. It was just an intense scream like a large animal that had just been startled.My horse that had been following behind me, came trotting up to my right side about 3 yards away just beneath a tree. Both horses just stood there like a couple of statues, frozen in place.The air thermals were going down the two canyons, so these animals and my horses couldn't smell one another. My scent was drifting down and to the right because of the air coming from Little Burns Canyon, and their scent was being carried down and to the left because of the air coming down Big Burns Canyon.The animal doing the screaming was slightly to my left at approximately 40 yards standing right in the middle of Big Burns Creek. All that I was thinking was maybe I had just ridden into a Mountain Lion. A few years before a friend at work told me of a Whitetail Doe that screamed at him one afternoon on the river bottoms. I just couldn't put an animal with the scream.I think it was right after the second scream that I heard the sounds of the second animal. It was 40 to 50 yards east of the one doing the screaming. I heard a loud whistle followed by some 4-5 fast verbalizing grunts {agh ooh egh egh} The whistle it seemed to me was like a man would make if he laid his lower lip over his teeth and whistled to try and get somebody's attention clear across a canyon. This loud whistle and grunts also overpowered the sounds coming from both creeks.It seemed to me the second was communicating with the one doing the screaming. And I just couldn't put any animal with those sounds. I've hunted elk with the bow for many years and I think I've heard just about every sound an elk can possibly make. The whistle and grunts were not coming from an elk. Elk don't scream like the scream I was hearing. Big cats don't whistle and grunt like the sound I heard from the second one.By then I was wide awake and fully alert. I didn't have a light on my person. I had two lights in the left side pocket of my pack tied on the other horse. After much effort I was able to get the horse I was riding to break away from the trance he was in and move to my right up next to the other horse. I reached over and removed an energizer headlamp, and the Mini Mag flashlight which held two AA batteries. I fumbled around and got the headlamp put on and got both lights turned on.Looking down in the middle of the creek where the screaming was coming from there were the eyes of a predator {eyes coming out of the front of the head}. They seemed large because they were reflecting so much light back at me. They were reflecting exactly the same color that I was broadcasting out from my lights. The energizer headlamp was on the white diode mode and the mini mag flashlight had a slight yellow color to it. The eyes were reflecting mostly bright white with a slight tinge of gold.Having the lights turned on it didn't stop it from screaming. It continued to scream another 3-4 times while the lights were on it, for a total of 6-7 Loud screams. All the same volume, length, and intensity, etc.Although I was very concerned, I really wasn't teribbly afraid. My heart wasn't pounding with adrenilin and I didn't feel I was in a life threating situation, because the one doing the screaming stayed put and wasn't getting any closer and being aggressive. I felt more like I was the one scaring this animal.I must have blinked my eyes at just the right time, because all of a sudden the eyes di

🔍 Circumstances

Just my two horses, Lightfoot and Denver. And Myself. The Horses aren't talking!!! But I have learned to read them by their actions. When I've ran into other animals in the hills. They will stop look and snort or blow the noses if they smell some strange animal. But they couldn't smell the animals we encountered but they sure could see them but they really acted different like they were just dumbfounded. I couldn't feel the horses heart beating fast like they were frighted like I have sometimes during encounters.

🌤️ Weather Conditions

I would have to look and see a chart of the sunset time for the 7th of November, to be sure, but it was about an half hour after it got dark. I could see with my night vision the difference between the dark pine trees and the lighter dead grass in the meadows. It was a clear night - no clouds.

ℹ️ Additional Details

I would have to look and see a chart of the sunset time for the 7th of November, to be sure, but it was about an half hour after it got dark. I could see with my night vision the difference between the dark pine trees and the lighter dead grass in the meadows. It was a clear night - no clouds.

🔗 Sources (1)

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