Put this on the list of things that make you shudder in the night.

World coyote howling champion Jason Groseclos recently set up a camera in the woods to show off one of his award-winning calls. And the response he got was bone-chilling. A video of the incident posted on YouTube has racked up more than 2.8 million views since September.

Coyotes are carnivorous cousins to wolves and dogs, and are said to be the most vocal communicators of its cohorts.

"Howling is a basic communication behavior in coyotes," Gary San Julian, professor of wildlife resources at Pennsylvania State University, said in an article.

San Julian explains that the call could be friendly or dangerous—which is not very comforting.

"It has several functions," he says. "One is to call the pack—really a family group—back together again after a period of individual hunting. A second reason that coyotes howl is to advertise their presence to other packs, essentially warning those other family groups against trespassing across territorial boundaries."

Watch what happens to Groseclos in the video above.