Sorry guys. Gotta vent. These idiots on my local (Rhode Island) Craiglist’s pet section have taken it over as a message board. It’s really for rehoming pets. So this topic came up about Fishers, the animal. I guess they’re weasel-like and often called Fisher Cats in New England.
But some people say be careful because they can attack pets and sometimes humans. Then the opposers came on and said they’re like any other animal, which attacks when provoked. Then the name callers came on,“You’rean idiot. Show me a documented case.” Someone posts a case.“Did you evenread the article, blah, blah, blah.”
Anyoneever heard of these critters? I read the wiki article, just wondering if anyone has any personal experiences with these animals. Of have studied their behavior. Thanks.
Here in Maine, fishers have been implicated in the deaths of both adult and juvenile lynx, so they certainly have the wherewithal to handle little Fluffy. Fishers are often blamed unfairly in the disappearance of domestic cats, but it does happen. The Portland Press Herald (Sept. 26, 2005) says
I agree it’s hard to picture, but fishers ARE substantially larger than ferrets. Even a very small female fisher will probably outweigh all but the largest male ferrets and as your link notes, fishers ( like a lot of mustelids ) have a pretty high sexual dimorphism in terms of size. The biggest male fishers will outweigh those largest male ferrets by almost 5:1.
You guys are SO awesome. I started to post the links to Craigslist, but I they’re a little too proud and ignorant to even care about the truth. They just wanna rile up anyone looking to adopt a puggle.
That’s really pretty interesting. Never seen them or heard of them. I guess their notoriety won’t increase until the local Eyewitness Snooze does a package for the 11.
Thanks guys (sorry about the missing spaces…my spacebar sucks).
Our neighborhood suffered several pet deaths (mostly ducks and a handful of elderly cats) a few years ago from Fisher Cat predation. They have both a strong lingering smell - far far stronger than our pet ferrets had, but domestic ferrets have scent glands removed - and a distinct scream, so we’re pretty sure they haven’t been fingered unfairly.
IIRC, they’re making a comeback in New Jersey, too. There was an article about them in the *Star-Ledger * awhile back, and while it may have been more NY or CN-specific, I’m pretty sure it was about fisher spottings in The Dioxin State.
Coming soon: ginormous, mutant, zombie fishers!
A friend of mine who was living in a log cabin in Vermont lost 2 cats, which he believes were eaten by fishers. For one of them, he found it’s head and some bones a few days after it had gone missing, and it had clearly lost a fight. He also found some of its fur in fisher scat.
