Fisher "Cat"

[StelleKitten]

Oh! I hope I don't have one near here.

 

[blucoondawg]

I am relatively sure there aren't fishers in Texas

 

[trapper john]

We have ermen wich are basicly the same thing they are like rats they will live just about anywhere.

 

[blucoondawg]

We have ermen wich are basicly the same thing they are like rats they will live just about anywhere.

Aren't ermin just weasels with their white winter fur? That's what an ermin is around here, fisher are way larger 4-5ft+ in length, like a giant viscious weasel

 

[Buxton Ducks]

Ermines are brown in the summer and white in the winter; they are also very small. Fishers are very very secretive and also about the size of a housecat. Depending on where you live you may have other weasel varieties such as minks and pine martens. There are a lot of fishers here in Maine and they get falsely blamed for the work of raccoons and coyotes in the poultry community. They also get blamed for eating housecats which I am sure has happened but a researcher in New York state examined the droppings of hundreds of fishers in urban areas and they found almost all wild game in their feces. Their favorite food is rabbit but have been known to take much larger prey. You are actually very lucky to have seen this animal, they have a home range of about 7 miles and try to avoid humans at all possible cost. If you have poultry close to your house, you most likely will never have to worry about a fisher taking them. I am an avid outdoorsman and have only seen one once in my life. My dogs treed it one day while on a walk and it was very very defensive. Most nighttime noises that people say are fishers are usually foxes. So in short, yes a fisher would eat the ducks but it is more likely a raccoon, fox, or coyote that would take the chance of snagging a bird so close to people. I wouldn't worry about the fisher, they are a successful wild game hunter in summer and winter that almost never needs to raid poultry houses and eat cats.

 

[blucoondawg]

Fishers were quite overpopulated here up until 5-7 years ago, it was not uncommon for most everyone who sent in for trapping tags to get 2 fisher tags per year and it wasn't uncommon to see them cross the road a couple times per year, we used to see them at least once per deer season in our hunting party making deer drives, now they have been trapped down to more reasonable numbers, now they are rarely seen and it is much harder to acquire a trapping tag for them. The will get far larger than a house cat, my trapper friends have had hides that were well over 4ft from nose to tip of tail, and I have heard of larger ones than that, this would be a older animal of course.

 

[aart]

Fishers were quite overpopulated here up until 5-7 years ago, it was not uncommon for most everyone who sent in for trapping tags to get 2 fisher tags per year and it wasn't uncommon to see them cross the road a couple times per year, we used to see them at least once per deer season in our hunting party making deer drives, now they have been trapped down to more reasonable numbers, now they are rarely seen and it is much harder to acquire a trapping tag for them. The will get far larger than a house cat, my trapper friends have had hides that were well over 4ft from nose to tip of tail, and I have heard of larger ones than that, this would be a older animal of course.

Where are you located? (might put it in your profile)

 

[blucoondawg]

Where are you located? (might put it in your profile)

Northern Wisconsin, thought I did have it on there, I'll have to add it in.

 

[junexs59]

I live in East Texas. A few months ago, we came home about dusk, and saw an animal crossing the road into a pasture. We did not know what this animal was. I said weasel, but it was larger than that. A few nights later, we got home around 11 pm, and pulled into the drive and saw the same type animal coming out of our chicken pen. It paused a second in front of the headlights and we saw this ugly creature with glowing eyes. Jumped out of the vehicle and ran over to the pen, and saw a dead duck inside the pen, with its head and neck sticking through the fence. My husband got the gun and a light, and went across the road trying to find it. All of a sudden, this thing started to scream, like nothing we have ever heard. He found it. It was exactly like the pictures of a Fisher Cat. The scream was eerie. It ran off into the woods. A couple nights later, it returned in the middle of the night and slaughtered three of our ducks and 21 eggs. Tracks of the Fisher Cat all around.
Now, 3 months later, our hens are coming up missing. He followed the feather trail into the brush, where he found trails and burrows and more feathers, but no chicken bones, or parts, just feathers here and there. Again, the scream at night.
Now, he is outside setting steel traps on the trail runs and around the pen. Hoping to catch this thing once and for all.
Wondering how it got here? I see reports of it up north, but I know that I know a Fisher Cat is here. Maybe it came in on a truck, a boat, somebody raised a baby and set it loose. Who knows. But don't think they can't travel, because we have one here in our neck of the woods and I am ready for it to be gone!

 

[D Kluck]

juneexs59-- I really don't think a fisher cat can survive the extreme august heat we have here in East Texas.

We do have a few badgers around here that are mean as hell. I have seen some that are almost solid brown..
At dusk and after you can barely notice the dull white stripe on the head and neck area.