Heavy Breathing

Nope, I can't tell you what it is - I heard it just around dusk again today. I've looked for poo, I've looked for signs of digging - zilch.
I don't have the spare cash to spend on wildlife cameras at the moment but I think its the way to go.
I'm beginning to think its the plumbing or something like that as I often hear it in the bathroom when I'm sitting on the lav

Hedgehogs can be quite noisy. Why not set up a wildlife camera to put your mind at rest, I agree that you do not want badgers if you have cattle. Good luck.

Yes, that is a thought Nannytopsy! We had barn owls and they really did sound like wheezy heavy breathing, very loud too.

Like several previous posters, it doesn't sound like a badger to me. I have heard all sorts of noises from them - including 'chattering'when they are with other members of their clan - but not nothing like loud breathing.

What is on the ground outside the window? If it is grass or soil, I would expect a regularly-visiting badger to be leaving some visible clues out there, either scratched-up grass/moss (or even small holes that people often think have been made by squirrels) where they have foraged for worms and grubs, or shallow indentations hollowed out in the grass or soil with their poo in them.

I don't know enough about hedgehogs to comment on the noises they can make, but if they are out there, they too are likely to be leaving some very distinctive poo lying around which is completely different from that of a badger.

Personally, I would be out there looking for those clues - I do enjoy a good garden mystery every now and then. ☺

Definitely hedgehogs. They breathe really heavily during the mating season between April and September. Over the years I’ve watched pairs snuffling and heavy breathing and going round in circles for hours before mating. Also, male hogs ward off other males by heavy breathing and making hissing noises. I too live in a bungalow and in the summer nights it can get very busy with heavy breathing hogs.

I'm watching this thread because we really need ExDancer to come back and tell is what animal it is!

I think a camera is the only solution unless you can be awake before they come. But do it now or you'll find they are gone and won't come back. The weather will change or something. It would be so cruel to leave us in suspense.

We had bats in one house, they seemed to make a scratching noise.

Had bats in my previous house. Very shallow roof space between ceiling of upstairs sitting room and roof. The noise they made, in the summer months only, was more like a chirping. Certainly not a loud sound. Badgers are very loud. Definitely recommend getting an outdoor camera. My neighbour had one and got some incredible footage of animals.

You would smell badgers if they’d been in your garden. Go to where you heard the noise and have a good sniff ! They smell like unpleasant pigs !

We could hear heavy wheezy breathing which turned out to be young barn owls!

But hedgehogs are mainly awake at night, and 4a.m. seems on the early side for them to be settling to sleep. And September is too early for the adult hedgehogs to be hibernating and much too soon for this year's young hedgehogs to have become fat enough yet to settle for the winter.

Could it be a cat? Some of them breath very loudly indeed when asleep.

Can you find the place where the breathing comes from in daylight? It might contain clues as to who is sleeping there.

Son had a badger digging up his bulbs in the front garden every night after he replanted them for a week.
He was convinced it was a neighbour he had argued with. One night he stayed awake in the car parked on the drive to catch the person and about 3am saw the badger in action Didn't get out of the car until it had gone as they can be vicious. He decided to have the whole driveway paved and moved the bulbs to the back garden after that.

think hedgehog very noisy but georgeous

Hedgehogs I think. I was awoken one summer's night to the sound of heavy breathing and panting and wondered what on earth it was. Got up, and put security light on and to my great amusement two hedgehogs bonking away on my patio! I laughed for ages! Couldn't believe they made so much noise!

Hedgehogs are very loud in the night during the mating season, which is not over yet. The male will circle the female for hours, sometimes, grunting and snoring.

Very often, it ends with no result. So presumably they try again some other time.

I feed badgers every evening and sit about 2 yards away from them outside.
They snuffle, snort and occasionally grunt but no heavy breathing.
Badgers poo is unlike fox or hedgehogs, it’s more of a splat!

Possibly Hedgehogs. Which reminds me of a hilarious evening at my inlaws many years ago. FIL came indoors from garden in the early evening. He was quite flustered having heard some loud breathing or hissing which he thought might be a snake in the bushes at the end of the garden. OH took the kitchen brush and bravely went out to investigate. Taking great care he moved up to the bush where the noise was coming from- only to find two mating hedgehogs! we laughed for a good long time over the incident.

Years ago I hear heavy breathing coming from my back garden. I was on my own as my husband worked nights. I was so scared it took me a longish time to open the bedroom window and look outside. It was a hedgehog! I had no idea they could sound so loud! So I would put money in it being a hedgehog.

I don’t think it’s an animal… maybe it’s one of you. People have a tendency to be in their deepest REM sleep cycle at that hour of the morning.

I have amused myself when I woke up a few times to a dream where someone in my dream was snoring or doing labored (heavy) breathing… turned out to be me.

I think an accurate test would be to get up before 4:00 AM and sit and wait for the “animal” to appear. (But who wants to get up that early?)

This is just a guess.
USA Gundy

I have a similar thing in a very shallow roof space between the tiles, having excluded other things I’m wondering (if the similar noise to yours) could be bats.

I heard very loud huffing and puffing sounds outside my window one late night this week and discovered a pair of courting hedgehogs circling each other on my lawn.

Hoping for hoglets on or around 11th October (gestation 32 days), and fingers crossed the weather will be kind to them🤞🏼

Just to say that one night my elderly father phoned at 2am saying he could hear water rushing in his loft - he'd already been up the loft ladder (!) to investigate but couldn't trace the leak. OH dressed and went to help (fortunately not far). Turned out it was not a leak but Father's tinnitus

Callistemon21

kircubbin2000

Not breathing but as soon as I get into bed I hear a noise like a helicopter overhead or a loud motor nearby.
When I open the window there is nothing there so it must be coming from indoors.
There is nothing obvious left on so I have no idea what it can be. When I wake in the night it has stopped.

Oh, me too, I began to think I have tinnitus but I can't hear it downstairs when all is quiet.

A freezer on automatic defrost?

kircubbin2000

Not breathing but as soon as I get into bed I hear a noise like a helicopter overhead or a loud motor nearby.
When I open the window there is nothing there so it must be coming from indoors.
There is nothing obvious left on so I have no idea what it can be. When I wake in the night it has stopped.

Oh, me too, I began to think I have tinnitus but I can't hear it downstairs when all is quiet.

That sounds weird kircubbin.
I've listened to the sounds of hedgehogs and badgers on here (UTube and such) - but the noise I hear is neither.
Its a slow breathing in and out, a bit like a human sleeping.
There's no scuffling in the pots under the window.
When I first looked out of the window I fully expected a cow to have escaped and got into the garden.