Two videos of a mysterious howl in the northern Ontario forest have gone viral, but many are unsure of what the noise could be.
Gino Meekis, a 39-year-old who lives in Sioux Lookout, was out hunting grouse with his wife and grandson on Oct. 3 when they heard the sound and captured it on video.
“We walked down this trail,” Meekis told Global News.
“For maybe 10 to 15 minutes, we walked down, then we turned around and were walking back to our vehicle, and about 500 metres from our vehicle, that’s when we started hearing the screaming.”
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The group of three were about 45 kilometres from Sioux Lookout, near Vermilion River Road.
“I thought it was a moose,” Meekis said. “It was the first thing that came to my mind because it was rutting season…when they mate.”
But as Meekis heard more of the screams, he started to change his mind.
“I started trying to think of what that was, and I couldn’t figure out what it was,” he said.
“I kind of think it’s a wolf, but I don’t know. I never heard a wolf sound like that before.”
The 39-year-old, who has been an occasional hunter since he was young, said he’s never heard a sound like that before.
“I heard many animals, like bears, rabbits, lynx,” Meekis said. “I’ve never heard this.”
Biologists with Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry are also not sure what the sound could be.
“Our biologists say it could be a larger mammal — for example a wolf — but because of a considerable distance from the recorder, there is no way to be certain,” Jolanta Kowalski, a spokesperson for the ministry, said in an email to Global News.
Meekis said he’s spoken to elders and more experienced hunters and has showed them the video. “They really don’t know what is,” he said.
Some have wondered whether the video is a hoax. In response to that, Meekis said, “They can think whatever they want, but I didn’t go out that day to play a hoax. I didn’t go out to deceive somebody.”
The 39-year-old said he’s been to the same area since hearing the noise and that he hasn’t heard it again.