What is it.

[Ole rooster]

I had a run in this afternoon with what I think was a weasel. I've seen something the last couple of months but today it was right in front of me. My dog got after it and got a pretty good bite in his lip. I looked up weasel in Georgia and all I found was a brown color with a black tipped tail. What I saw today was solid black. No other color any place on it's body. It looked to weigh around 12-15 lbs and ran like a long caterpillar. It would stretch it's body straight, then hump it's back, take a stride and straighten out and hump up again. The little bugger was pretty fast too.

My question is, if the only weasels we have here are brown, what could this have been solid black?

 

[luvmychixandducks]

I think your dog ran into a juvenile fisher cat and was lucky all he got was a bit lip.
An adult FC can handle even a German Shepherd one on one and quickly leave a dead dog behind.
There was an article in our local paper about a dog owner who sent his GS dog after a Fisher cat
and in less than two minutes the dog had its throat torn out. Fisher cats are in various color coat from yellow tan to deep brown to black. Google a picture of a fisher cat and see if I'm right.

 

[luvmychixandducks]

Georgia is not a normal location for a fisher cat however since animals are released by idiots in non native locations frequently that does not surprise me. As in the pythons spreading across Florida and Russian boars damaging crops all across the south. Animals can be relocated in shipping cars inadvertently also. If we believe the Walt Disney episodes we grew up on... As strange as it seems I still vote for a fisher cat as the culprit.

 

[luvmychixandducks]

Update... further research on line reveals that a Georgia resident named Dacia Dills reported on April 30 of this year seeing a pair of fisher cats either fighting or mating in her yard and she confirmed via internet photos the identity of these weasels.
She did not report the sighting to DOR but is convinced they were fisher cats.
Dills lives a short distance from Atlanta, she said south of the city in her posting ,
Animals were running across roof of a neighbors house when sighted , chasing each other. She heard their screams and thinking it was a fox, went to investigate and viewed them at that time. Readers speculate they may have been pets that escaped.
Are you in the greater Atlanta area ?

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote: A Mink will often appear to be black, and they are common in GA

Mink

 

[Kelsie2290]

That big, if you are really near water, river otter is another possibility.

 

[Ole rooster]

I looked up River Otter and yes it does look like that. The Fisher Cat from what I see has a loose, course fur. This animal had a tight glossy black fur. The dog rolled it over and I did see it was black all over. No other spots anywhere that I could tell. To be honest, I can't tell a lot of difference in either one of these two animals. The only thing that I see that would make me lean to one over the other is the glossy fur.

And yes, I am 60 miles south of Atlanta. I have seen a cougar here some 8 years ago. But when he saw us it was gone. As I said earlier, this black animal is the first one of these I've seen.

Thanks everybody.

 

[littleoak]

Your description sounds like a mink to me. I had one this summer, and everyone said they were only near water. I am in east central Illinois and my closest water is about ten miles. I was able to kill the mink after it had killed two chickens. They kill exactly like a weasel. nasty little animal.