# A fisher roaming New York City **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 28, 2014, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840 "2014-06-28T02:38:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/1 "2014-06-28T02:38:49Z")
I thought it so cool that a fisher would take up NYC as home. I find myself rooting for him that a female will show up and a subspecies gradually develops that feeds on rats and adapts to human habitations. It would be so cool to see resident fishers scurring around Los Angeles. Go Fisher!! ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/2 "2014-06-28T02:55:55Z")
At first I thought you were talking about the profession - “What, so he’s fishing in the harbor?” But yeah, I hope it’ll [help with the rats](http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140625/university-heights/mystery-animal-spotted-bronx-is-rodent-eating-weasel-expert-says). ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/3 "2014-06-28T03:45:41Z")
The author of the linked article seems to call every animal a rodent. The fisher is called a rodent (near the end of the article), and it seems to lump porcupines in with rodents too. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/4 "2014-06-28T04:28:03Z")
Fishers are in the weasel family, like a miniature wolverine almost. Porqupines are rodents. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/5 "2014-06-28T06:00:06Z")
Very cool. First wild turkeys, then coyotes, now fishers. It won’t be long before the Bronx has moose and black bear again. Roland Kays, the mammal expert cited in the article, is a friend of mine. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/6 "2014-06-28T06:36:40Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Porqupines are rodents. How about that. I never knew that. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/7 "2014-06-28T23:07:10Z")
Maybe the creature my friend and I saw in Princeton last spring was a fisher. We’d seen a play, had dinner and were strolling the town and campus for a bit when we saw a couple of these…things…that were neither groundhogs, raccoons, or anything else we’d ever seen. We were sort of far away but we saw that they had longish legs and fluffyish tails. They vanished down a sewer grate and we didn’t have the foggiest idea what they were. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/8 "2014-06-28T23:57:09Z")
In europe they have something called a stone martin i believe. I think we have a small resident population of these that lives in a town somewhere in Wisconsin, they have been there for decades but never seem to expand thier range. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/9 "2014-06-29T04:29:07Z")
Fishers are nasty animals that kill small outdoor pets. We lost all but one of our ducks to a fisher, and possibly a small indoor/outdoor cat too. I generally like weasels (especially ferrets and martins), but fishers are a big exception. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/10 "2014-06-29T13:32:05Z")
Probably someone had it as an exotic pet, then got tired of it and set it loose. This is one of the biggest problems with exotic pets. Introducing new species to the area. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/11 "2014-06-29T17:00:25Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Probably someone had it as an exotic pet, then got tired of it and set it loose. This is one of the biggest problems with exotic pets. Introducing new species to the area. I’m not aware of fishers being kept as pets. Considering its recent increase in numbers, and expansion into suburban habits, and the fact that an animal could have easily arrived in that part of the Bronx from farther north by following vegetation along rivers, rail lines, or highways, I think it’s much more likely to be a wild animal. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2014, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/12 "2014-06-30T00:09:54Z")
Yeah, you’re right. It is the bronx and therefore somehow connected to ‘the real world’. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-fisher-roaming-new-york-city/691840/13 "2014-06-30T00:52:42Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Fishers are nasty animals that kill small outdoor pets. We lost all but one of our ducks to a fisher, and possibly a small indoor/outdoor cat too. I generally like weasels (especially ferrets and martins), but fishers are a big exception. To worms, ducks are nasty. To mice, cats are nasty.