Gekkering fox

In the early hours of Thursday morning our sleep was disturbed by noises from outside. It wasn't the usual fox calls, more a rapid 'tapping' sound as though someone was gently hammering a stone. Flashlight at the ready, I peered through the window. It took me a moment to realize that a fox was staring back at me (the shy vixen?) from a dozen feet the other side of the window. It was about eye-level, on a raised flower bed. Further scrutiny of the scene revealed a second fox lurking deep in the shrubs by the edge of some chain link fencing. It looked like a young fox, though my view was not good (plus I was half asleep) We stared at each other for a couple of moments. The shy fox then moved further up the garden and out of sight, and her companion retreated into the undergrowth.

Given the time of year it's possible that I'd been disturbed by some aspect of their mating rituals. I haven't been able to locate a recording of the particular sound, but I found an information sheet on the Irish Peat Conservation Council site which includes a short reference to 'gekkering', described as follows: "The other noises are made when the foxes are in contact. One is called gekkering, or clikketing, a mechanical staccato noise which sounds similar to the clicking noise made by a football supporters rattle." I'm not sure the football rattle compariosn is quite how I would describe it (it was more like very rapid footsteps or tapping), but apparently it's an aggressive sound commonly heard during the courtship season (according to Wikipedia). So I think I've now heard a 'gekkering' fox.

Tonight's photo is the shy fox from a couple of nights ago. The eyeshine and blurriness approximates what I saw last night 😉

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This Post Has 15 Comments

  1. CedarFox

    28 Dec 2007

    Very interesting, I've never heard of gekkering before 🙂

  2. Flying Red Fox Blog

    28 Dec 2007

    Wow they are very noisey when doing it lol:lol: i bet they were a bit embarrased when they woke you up hehe – "oh no we woke words up, lets doing it quietly for the rest of the night" hehe:P

  3. SittingFox

    28 Dec 2007

    Very interesting observation – I don't believe I've ever heard that sound.

  4. Words

    28 Dec 2007

    Adele, it was a very odd sound. I looked outside half expecting to see a human intruder. It didn't really occur to me that it would be the foxes. I'll see if I can find a sound sample on the web (must be one somewhere).

  5. Words

    28 Dec 2007

    'Clickerting' is the same thing. I've found one clip so far, but it's too throaty. These were quite long bursts (several seconds) of very rhythmic rattling, a bit like the clicking sound you can make at the back of the palate.

  6. SittingFox

    28 Dec 2007

    Ah, I've got an ancient audio cassette which explains fox barks and it describes one of its January tracks as follows:

    Two foxes; the wo-wo fox is answered by hysterical scream-barking, and moves in the direction of the yelling fox; after a short pause, single yell-barks are answered by wo-wo barks. Then a sharp exchange in the background when the animals give short kak-kak aggressive calls, often heard at mating time and known as "clickerting".

    Now I guess I should locate a cassette player! There must be one hidden around here somewhere…

  7. Words

    28 Dec 2007

    Eric, it was a new one on me too!

  8. Words

    28 Dec 2007

    Mark, I suspect it was a male trying it on and the female saying 'get lost!', though I don't really know. When I saw them they were about 6 feet apart and the noise had stopped. Very bizarre sound though.

  9. SittingFox

    28 Dec 2007

    None of these?

    Incidently, I was reading that Irish link, and it mentioned that foxes don't growl. I don't know whether the Old Dogfox is just odd, but I have heard him utter deep dog-like growls on occasion. However, they don't carry very far.

  10. Words

    28 Dec 2007

    Nope 🙁

  11. anonymous

    28 Dec 2007

    Nikki writes:

    Neat! I never knew that.

  12. SittingFox

    28 Dec 2007

    Well, I got one sequence off the cassette of what they call clickerting, though this one was recorded in April so it must be in different context. Recording by Richard Margoschis.

    It starts off with the screams and then goes into the clicking call.

  13. Words

    28 Dec 2007

    Adele, that's great. Thanks for digging it out. Around the 50 second mark gets the rhythm about right, but the sound on the tape is slightly throatier. Given that I was half asleep my recollection of the sound isn't perfect, but that gets reasonably close. :up:

  14. anonymous

    5 Mar 2013

    Jane writes:

    Until last night I had never heard this incredible sound in my life. If I hadn't looked out and seen that it was two foxes 'facing up' to each other I would more easily have believed that it was aliens trying to communicate! What a totally weird noise it is!! The two foxes were both females, after a bit of chasing they sat facing each other, the one with it's mouth WIDE open and the other making the noise – I thought they were going to fight, so I opened the window, gave them both a heart attack and they shot off in different directions

  15. Words

    7 Mar 2013

    Jane, strange sound isn't it. I've only heard it once or twice, but unforgettable.

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