What is this animal and is it a threat to my birds?!?!?

[MeghanChickLady]

I was going down my road the other day, a quarter of a mile from my house and I saw a dark shadow in a ditch. I slowed and looked out the window, and it was this long, weasel like creature, but bigger. It had a pointed head and a sleek body, and it made the jump out of the ditch(a foot at most) easily. It ran pretty fast, towards my land. It had a longish tail, short legs, and was very lithe. It had rounded, little ears. The pelt was thick and dark. I was unable to catch a picture in the twenty/thirty seconds I saw it before it was gone.

The only reason Im worried is that it hissed at me aggressively and showed me a good set of sharp teeth. It was also eating a dead kitten.

Any ideas?

 

[sourland]

Where are you located? It sounds as if it may be a fisher, and yes they kill and eat cats and chickens.

 

[mrmcduck]

My guess is that's its a mink and I would say yes they can do much harm to your flock. I wish you luck

 

[MeghanChickLady]

Thank you for the wishes of luck and I live in central Vermont. What can I do to prevent any attakcs???

 

[sourland]

Not impossible, but I have never known of a mink killing and eating a cat. Fishers are definitely found in Vermont. Fortify your coop and run to protect your birds. Do an on line search on 'fishers or fisher cats' to see if this is indeed what you saw.

 

[123RedBeard]

Fisher's are about 3'-4' long with tail

Mink are closer to 2' with tail

 

[bobbi-j]

Mink

Fisher

Similar in appearance, but different in size.

 

[MeghanChickLady]

thank you for the help you guys, I did search and it is most definitely a fisher. I'm going to fix up my coop and close my chickens inside the coop at night. Thank you. You probably just saved ten chicken lives.The pictures posted also told me.

 

[bobbi-j]

Good plan! I would definitely fortify my coop and run if I saw one of those things near my house. We do have mink, but they rarely come near the building site. We have a huge slough (swamp, if you will) across the road from our place with plenty of food for them there.

 

[3riverschick]

Look for tiny openings in your coop and wire. I had an possum get in once. Fortunately the birds were coops. Interestingly, it got in by ripping the chicken wire in a narrow panel where it was stretched tighter than the 3x4 panels. I think the fact that narrow panel of wire was more taut and let the possum get a good grip on it
and rip it. We fixed the problem with a solid board across that narrow space.
Best,
Karen