Terrifying moment 'death whistle' sound is caught on doorbell camera

Dog owners understand the unease of taking your dog out late at night, even if it is just in your backyard.

One owner may just reconsider after a terrifying noise sent them sprinting indoors for safety.

Now, any kind of scream - regardless of the time of day - is enough to send chills down your spine, or at least mine.

But this one certainly has scared the masses after it was shared by @CreepyOrg on X, receiving almost 20 million views.

In the footage, the owner is out in the garden by the pool holding a torch with his dog when the eerie shriek sounds. Wasting no time at all, the man quickly decides not to stick around for an answer and sprints indoors.

Bruno Guerrero/Unsplash

The noise could possibly be an Aztec Death Whistle, a modern replica at least.

Believed to be a ceremonial way to mark death, the ceramic skull-shaped death whistle was first discovered in 1999 during an excavation of an Aztec temple in Mexico City, as reported by the Daily Mail.

According to Spanish friar, Tomás de Torquemada, an Aztec general would carry ‘a drum on his shoulders which he played at the start of a battle while others blew large shell trumpets’.

Though music archaeologist Arnd Adje Both who investigated the whistles suggests this is just one 'possibility.'

He added: 'Up to this point, we haven't excavated an individual classified as an Aztec warrior with such an instrument around their neck. For now, it seems to be more of a ritual instrument.'

X/@CreepyOrg

Meanwhile, scientist James J. Orgill experimented with a 3D-printed version of the whistle and made a YouTube video about it.

Orgill mentioned that archaeologists first thought the noise could be coming from a toy.

'It wasn't until 15 years later for some reason a scientist blew into the hole in the top of it and this is the sound that came out,' he claimed.

So, it's possible that the eerie sound captured by the camera late at night could be coming from a modern replica of the Aztec Death Whistle.

But again, all just speculations for now. The answer just be down to a fox or a dog which can be just as frightening to hear late at night.