What sound did I hear while hiking through Tucson's Pima Canyon?
This is one of those mysteries that I haven't been able to solve. For context, I was hiking Pima Canyon back in 2017 or 2018. I was with another hiker. After about a mile or so, the other person said they needed to take a break, so I decided I would get a quick trail run in. I started jogging further along the path, dodging boulders and cacti.
After about another mile (so I'd guess two miles into the hike from the trailhead), I heard a sound. It was one of those situations where your brain doesn't know how to interpret what it is sensing, so it fills something in as a placeholder. In this instant, I thought it was the sound of someone starting a lawnmower. It was a brief sound -- maybe 1 second in duration. It also sounded close to me.
As soon as I came to the realization that nobody was mowing their lawn out here, I felt very threatened. I bent down and grabbed the largest rock I could find, and turned around and started walking back down the trail. After a few minutes, I picked up the pace and sped back to the other hiker.
To this day, I have no idea what that sound was.
Looking it up, this site says that Pima Canyon has the Northern Mockingbird. To quote its profile from the site:
Maybe a javelina! I can totally see how their snarfling could sound like a lawn mower.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/-lj-/3637919884
Hmm. That's an interesting one and I can't rule it out because it was so long ago. But I want to say the sound I heard was much less guttoral. Perhaps tinny is a good way to put it.
Anyway, thanks! Now I know that those cute little pigs sounds like demonspawn!
Maybe a baby? They sound quite a bit different, and adults also apparently scream... which I'd guess sounds even more like demonspawn.
My guess would be a rattlesnake. The tail getting up to speed would sound kind of like a lawnmower starting, and instinctively, the point is that you feel threatened.
I live in rattlesnakc country. Hearing one of those guys definitely has a way to making one feel on edge for about 20 minutes.
Could have been a cougar? They can make a variety of low growling sounds. If it was a cougar you were right to feel threatened. Though rare they've been known to attack people and a few were found eating human remains in that area some years ago (though they didn't kill the person it seems).
I'd guess some kind of beetle (or other large bug) taking flight or landing nearby.
Example (not of one that would be found in that region, but I'm sure there are other large beetle species there): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp0k6VDXUOQ
Could be this! Tucson has Palo Verde Beetles that sounds like helicopters or lawnmowers. Especially when they go past your ear.
I don't know if they have ruffed grouse in Arizona, or a relative of them, but they make a noise with their wings if you startle them the woods, which definitely sounds like a lawnmower starting.