Hunter Records Eerie Howl in Northern Ontario, Canada

The woods from which the eerie howls emanated. (Gino Meekis / YouTube) — The woods from which the eerie howls emanated. *(Gino Meekis / YouTube)*

Ontario hunter Gino Meekis was hunting grouse with his wife and grandson in early October when they heard a series of long, echoing, mournful howls emanating from the woods.

The encounter took place on October 3rd at around 6:50 pm, about 45 kilometers from Sioux Lookout, Ontario, Canada, and lasted for around five minutes, said Meekis. He was able to capture 3:05 minutes of video, of which 2:15 was uploaded to YouTube.

His young grandson can be heard trying to mimic the odd noises in the video.

"[I've never] heard anything like this before," Meekis told CTVNews in a phone interview. “It was more bass-y than anything I’ve heard scream before.”

The eerie howling was first heard as they headed back to their car at the end of the trail along the Vermilion River.

"We walked down a trail to see if we can find a bird, and on our way back to the vehicle, it started," said Meekis.

Initially, he thought it might be a mundane animal noise, but quickly changed his mind.

“When it let out the first scream, I thought it was a moose, but my mind changed when it screamed again and again,” he said. “I started thinking of all the animals in the area—I’d heard during my life—and it didn’t match.”

“At first, I wasn’t scared because it sounded kind of far from where we were,” he added. “It sounded like it was a kilometer away. So if it started coming, [we had] enough time to get out of there.”

Regardless, the unsettling noises were enough to get them to hustle back to their vehicle.

“We could hear it moving…it sounded kind of heavy,” Meekis said. “But my wife, she got scared…picked up [our grandson] and started walking fast towards the vehicle.”

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry was unable to identify the source of the sound.

“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,” said ministry spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski.

The video has gone viral since it was posted, accumulating over one million views, and various speculative explanations have been offered for the source of the eerie howls—including wolves, coyotes, and even Bigfoot.

Similar sounds heard off of northern Vancouver Island in 2015 were also ascribed to Sasquatch, especially since, in that instance, no known large mammal species live in the area those sounds were heard.

A few people have accused Meekis of hoaxing his recently-published video; an accusation he vehemently denies.

“They think there’s a speaker or a recording playing something,” he said. “I didn’t go out that day to deceive people.”

Ultimately, Meekis is as stumped as anyone regarding the howl’s source.

“I’m in the same boat as them since I heard it,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll ever find out.”

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