Thousands of villagers in Guizhou, China said that they heard baffling noises from the mountains. They have flocked to search this mysterious creature that sounds like a dragon's growling.
Trending footage emerged online that shows curious villagers swarming to the top of the mountain in Xiushui of China's southwestern province Guizhou. It is where the supposed beast can be heard making the growling noises.
Some described the sound as a 'dragon's growling' while others say it was 'a tiger's roar.' Roadblocks were placed by local officials to stop the locals from gathering while sending a team of experts to investigate the mysterious sound.
A Dragon's Growling
"It's growling! It's growling!"
Those are the words that can be heard in the footage taken by an onlooker who posted the video online as thousands of locals in Xiushui rushed to the mountain hills after some farmers claimed that they heard some strange noises.
On June 20, they first heard this strange sound coming from the top of the mountains. In the video, local residents are seen gathering in the area while intently listening to the low-pitched sound. Some people excited exclaimed that they heard the mystery creature growl.
Moreover, the video has also drawn attention to the Chinese social media after some web users claimed that the sound came from a dragon, but others say it was like a tiger's growl.
Local officials of Guizhou have dispatched a team of experts to the mountain to look for the mysterious creature in the area that has been making sound after the videos taken became viral on the internet.
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Yellow-legged Buttonquail
The zoologists revealed that the mysterious sound was coming from a type of small bird called the yellow-legged buttonquail. It is hardly bigger than a sparrow and has a disproportionately loud song.
Yellow-legged buttonquails are unrelated to the true quails. They are endemic to the Indian subcontinent, East and Southeast Asia.
During the bird's breeding season, the females repeatedly utter the booming hoots which can be heard at a distance as far as 328 feet (100 meters). They offer food to males during courtship and then leaves its egg to the males for incubation. It only hatches after about 12 days, and then the chicks will follow the male after hatching.
The zoologists' conclusion was confirmed by the local residents who had found the animals while they were making the noises in the mountains.
The village's primary school teacher, Liu Fuqiong, told Pear Video, "It hummed twice or three times repeatedly every six or seven minutes. The sound was very deep. I thought it was quite strange as well."
Then a dozen of villagers followed the sound to the cornfield to confirm and chase down the yellow bird with a short tail. Furthermore, the director of the provincial wildlife protection center Ran Jingcheong told reporters that the residents in other areas also heard similar sounds before but just did not think too much about it.
Local officials had detained at least four residents for spreading rumors online that the sound was a dragon's growling.
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