Since they are active after dark, opossums are most likely to make sounds at night. The pests are usually silent when they are alone, so hearing opossums means that multiple animals are nearby.
Opossums are usually silent. If you hear one, it will be at night. These pests will make clicking noises when they're trying to attract mates and hissing or growling sounds when they feel threatened. Baby opossums make noises that sound like sneezing when trying to get their parent's attention.
These include “grunting, growling, hissing, screeching, clicking and teeth-chattering calls, many of which would not be out of place on a horror movie soundtrack”. Common brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) live across much of suburban Australia.
They are known for their distinctive hissing and growling sounds, which they use to defend themselves when they feel threatened. Opossums may also make other sounds, such as snarling, growling, and chattering, when they are agitated or excited.
Possums are mostly solitary but make a range of noises at night when there are other possums around including screeches, grunts, growls, hisses and chatters (aggressive), zook-zook noises and squeaks with dependent juveniles, and males make shook-shook and clicking noises when courting a female.
Katydids and crickets are excellent examples of nighttime noise-making insects. These insects, which belong to the same Order (Orthoptera) make noises in similar ways: by rubbing their wings together. These insects usually make their high pitched chirping noise at night to attract mates or to warn off predators.
Sooty Owls
The Greater Sooty Owl is native to the south-eastern forests of Australia and is nocturnal, spending its days in tree hollows, caves and under rock overhangs. Its typical call is known as a 'falling bomb whistle', a short, descending screech or shriek that can be heard over long distances.
Growling: these are made by possums when they're threatened or angry.
The Brushtail Possum moves rapidly among trees and will leap from one branch to another. Brushtail Possums use a range of sounds including screams, hissing and growling which are frequent, particularly in mating season.
Making a loud noise or playing loud music usually is enough to get the animal to retreat off your property. If noise doesn't do the trick, you can try setting up balloons, pinwheels or oscillating fans in your yard.
They might be interested in attics, as they like high spaces and dark areas. They also like basements, storage sheds, and even garages. There is also the chance that decks and crawl spaces might be a good home for an opossum. If it is a dark place, the nocturnal opossum might be interested in it.
Its cry is more akin to a chirruping noise than the aggressive grunts of the brushtail possum. Possums make these noises to communicate with each other and just like humans possums use their vocalisations to communicate a point.
A possum usually adopts a routine of leaving the roof space at the same time every night. Our clients will tell us that they hear their resident possum thump its way through the roof to head outside, usually just after dusk. They also state that the possum will return just prior to dawn.
As possums are nocturnal they generally move around at night. They have a heavy thumping movement across a roof or ceiling (described by some as sounding like an elephant walking on the roof!). Possums also cough and make hissing noises. Rats make a pitter patter sound on the roof or ceiling when moving about.
A possum's high-pitched scream usually occurs when possums are fighting or threatened.
Possums aren't aggressive, however, they do have the tendency to eat whatever they can and take shelter anywhere they feel safe, including inside the household roof.
Opossums are transient animals, staying only 2-3 days in an area before moving on. Removal is neither necessary nor desirable. Wildlife experts agree that if opossums were eliminated from an area, the population of roof rats and other pests would proliferate.
Opossums also keep rats and cockroaches at bay by competing with them for food. In fact, it's common for opossums to kill cockroaches and rats if they find them in their territory." Not only do they take care of pests, they do so without spreading disease to humans.
The Burrowing Owl's vocal abilities have raised eyebrows among birders and scientists alike. Because as well as its double hoots and other calls, the Burrowing Owl is known for another hair-raising sound: a long, rattling hiss.
B08h40a A small cicada species with an interesting high-pitched rattling call, the Southern Spotted Cicada (Gelidea torrida) is found in Tasmania [the taxa there is known as the Tasmanian Ticker!) and a few locations along the coast of Victoria.
Porcupines can sound like babies in the dark, video shows | Centre Daily Times.
“What makes a loud screeching noise at night?” That's probably a barn owl. They hunt at night, and they make a screeching sound similar to a hawk or an eagle.