What kind of animal sounds can YOU impersonate?

Austin the Sengi

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Now before I begin. The entire reason behind the concept of this thread’s existence, was simply based on a random idea that I recently had, just to see whether or not anyone else here on ZooChat other than myself, could easily make some sounds based on certain animal vocalizations (ex. a lion’s roar). Now for starters, here are some of the more notable animal sounds that I can easily make, (whenever my throat ever feels like doing so):

African Lion, (Panthera leo spp.)
Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin, (Tursiops truncatus)
Common Chimpanzee, (Pan troglodytes)
Domestic Cow, (Bos taurus)
African/Cape Buffalo, (Syncerus caffer caffer)
Domestic Goat, (Capra hircus)
Nile Hippopotamus, (Hippopotamus amphibius)
Spotted Hyena, (Crocuta crocuta)
White-Cheeked Gibbon, (Hylobates lar)

Emu, (Dromaius novaehollandiae)
Southern Cassowary, (Casuarius casuarius)
Domestic Chicken, (Gallus gallus domesticus)
Wild Turkey, (Meleagris gallopavo)
Indian Peafowl, (Pavo cristatus)

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, (Crotalus atrox)


I also want to mention, that if you either have some form of difficulty when it comes to making an animal sound, or if you simply don’t know how. That is okay, after all, it is only just a simple talent that some people just so happen to be good at, whether they are good at it or not; even it means that it might be different for some people, while the opposite might be true for others. In addition, I am also aware that there are probably certain existent threads that have already tackled this subject before. But to my current knowledge, I personally do not believe that anyone else has had any current attempt to bring this kind of topic into the forum; so in that case, I am just going to be the first one here that will bring it up here, if you know what I mean.
 
Last edited:
I can make the following:

African Lion
Chimpanzee
Domestic Goat
Howler Monkey
Giant Panda
Saiga
Emperor Penguin
Bengal Tiger
Eastern Wild Turkey
Peafowl
Plains Zebra
Varanus sp.
American Bullfrog
Cougar
Caribou
 
White-Cheeked Gibbon, (Hylobates lar)
I just noticed that I unintentionally wrote White-Cheeked Gibbon as the common name for the gibbon species that I included in my first post, when it really should have been the White-Handed Gibbon instead. I sincerely do apologize for this slight inconvenience, but since that post had already reached its expiration date when it comes to editing the post itself. I’m afraid that there is nothing really else that I can do about it, until I of course, update the post and make some changes to make it more relevant.
 
I can do a dolphin by bending my tongue back on itself and sucking air in to create a rapid series of clicks. I tried it once at Sea World while feeding a dolphin and got no response.

Other than that I'm not bad at a giraffe.
 
When I was a kid I was fairly good imitating the sound of common magpies. Sadly, with the passing of years my attempts resulted less and less convincing.

Once I attracted an scops owl by imitating its call.
 
I can do

Elephant (Trumpeting, Rumbling you name it I can do it)
Lion (Roaring and growling)
Zebra (When I was younger and my voice more high pitched)
Impala
Hippo
Giraffe (Infrasonic calls)
Cape Buffalo
Rock Pigeon
Rhino (Only squealing)
 
Last edited:
African Lion
Bengal Tiger
Plains Zebra
I find it funny that you added a specific (sub)species. I highly doubt a Bengal Tiger sounds very different from a Malayan or Amur tiger. The same could be said about African and Asian lions; and Grevy’s, Mountain, and Plains Zebra. ;)

Yes they may have some minor differences in their calls but for the most part they are all quite similar.
Infrasonic Giraffe sounds are like a low hum so I can do that, no human on earth can make infrasonic sounds
Just because you can make a low hum doesn’t mean you can make infrasonic sounds :p
 
This is something I've played with/been working on a long time, and am pretty good with quite a few, mostly birds.

Ones I'm good at:

Great Horned Owl
Barn Owl
Western Screech-Owl
Barred Owl
Great Gray Owl
Mourning Dove
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Rock Pigeon
Great Blue Heron
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Rhinoceros Auklet
Laughing Kookaburra (chuckle and warm up)
Crested Caracara (begging)
Black/Turkey Vulture huffs
Yellow-billed/Black-billed Magpies
Common Raven
Parrot mimicking speech
Bobwhite
Peafowl
Whip-poor-will
Chuck-will's Widow
Golden-crowned Sparrow (whistled)
White-throated Sparrow (whistled)
Pied-billed Grebe (rattle call)
Goose/swan hiss
Common Cuckoo
American Bullfrog
North American Porcupine (moan/grumble)
Our dogs bark and howl
Domestic chicken
Domestic cow

Reasonable imitations:

Northern Saw-whet Owl
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Flammulated Owl
Spotted Owl
American Flamingo
Wild Turkey
Rock Ptarmigan
California Quail
Fulvous Whistling Duck
Wood Duck
Killdeer
Roadrunner (song)
Peregrine alarm screams
American Bittern (song)
Sora (kur-wee calls)
Ring-necked Pheasant alarm
Canyon Wren descending song (whistled)
Black-capped Chickadee
White-crowned Sparrow (whistled)
Great Argus
Elk bugle

Still working on my Bald Eagle, I'm close but can't quite get it right very well. I also have a lot of bad imitations of things like Acorn Woodpeckers, scrub-jays, Red-winged Blackbird, and what not.
 
Some of you mention animals whose sounds seems practically impossible to imitate properly. Great Argus, I would love to hear you imitating nothing less that the metallic screen of a barn owl! Or Pantheraman with the elk bellow!
 
I can actually do the old trick of imitating a bird's song well enough to lure a male bird towards me in search of a rival male in its territory. Unfortunately I can only do it for one West African species, the many-coloured bush-shrike (Malaconotus multicolor). This is not as impressive as it sounds because its song is actually a single note;The African Handbook of Birds describes it as "a melodious, whistling, rather melancholy 'whoop'."
 
and Grevy’s, Mountain, and Plains Zebra. ;)

Yes they may have some minor differences in their calls but for the most part they are all quite similar.

The three species of zebra make very different noises; Grevy's has a long braying call (used by territorial males); Plains Zebra has the barking 'Qua Ha' call; Mountain Zebra has a high-pitched whinnying call- 'like a stone thrown across ice' is one description.
 
The three species of zebra make very different noises; Grevy's has a long braying call (used by territorial males); Plains Zebra has the barking 'Qua Ha' call; Mountain Zebra has a high-pitched whinnying call- 'like a stone thrown across ice' is one description.
Oh guess I was mistaken, I’m sorry about that. That’s very interesting, I had no idea. Thanks for letting me know! :)
 
Wolverine

Elephant (distressed)

Northern Cardinal
Barred owl
Summer tanager (I have yet to see one and probably never will)


Bugs Bunny
 
@Great Argus I say see one because I have heard them a few times, hence me trying to impersonate them. Minnesota's summer birds are sometimes too overwhelming in biodiversity I have probably only seen 20% of them, despite living here and going out almost every day to find some. I slowly ticked some species down and Every time I saw a cardinal I would cross my fingers to hope It was a Summer Tanager. :p I need to ask a few people that I know who have seen them (no one here on zoochat) to tell me some of the best places to find the tanagers.
Not too heavily though, I don't want this to turn into another one of my ZC Big year fiasco's :rolleyes:.
 
Back
Top