Fisher Cats

[KBoater]

MJM
We had a Bobcat one winter in our woods (Wolfeboro). Have never seen a Fisher, and hope to keep it that way for the sake of our sweet and overly curious Golden Retriever.

This link was in a different forum - good pics and info.
http://www.pusscats.com/Fisher_Cat.htm

"The Fisher Cat is a ferocious predator of small game and they are very fast on their feet."


There are Fisher Cats in Wolfeboro and I have seen several in different places and usually at dusk.
I’ve been told that you do not want to go near them as they will attack if cornered.
They are dark, large and low to the ground. One we photographed from a deck and I do not have the picture.

[gtxrider]

They must be mean they are related to the wolverine!


Also a AA Affiliate to the Toronto Blue Jays

[LilacHill]

We have them in our yard on Avery Hill. I've seen them at the stream and crossing the horse turn out.

[donnamatrix]

In 1991, on Moultonboro Neck, approximately 33 cats were taken by Fishers. They were, and I believe still are, on the endangered species list. We saw one once when we lived at South Down Shores. Allegedly, their victims are killed instantly, because they have more pounds per square inch power in their jaws than a Great White shark. Another good reason to only let your cats out on the screened porch.

[Lin]

I've seen fisher cats even here in MA. In fact my blacksmith was trimming my horses feet and described seeing one in his back yard crossing the stream the day before. He was asking me if they were around. Well since we've seen them in the woodlands next to the river and he lives just a mile away, it was most likely that was what he saw. Also someone took some cool video of a bobcat in their yard in Westford, MA earlier this week. They just watched it walk calmly off into the forest. New Hampshires baseball team is the Fishercats to for those that didn't know or see all the signs in Manchester.
Heres a few sites to check out the animals:
http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/fisher.htm
http://home.mcn.net/~wtu/fisher.html
http://www.nhfishandwildlife.com/fisher.htm
http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Wild...ile_fisher.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammals....2C_Lynx_rufus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobcat

[GTO]

saw one in Nashua last year as I was getting into my truck at dusk I was parked at the edge of some woods and he crossed a path about 10 feet in front of me. We stared at each other and he just ran into the woods. Definately wouldn't want to be any closer than that.

[WINDinmySOCKIES]

Pretty sure we saw one this summer coming home one night crossing the road
Avery Hill and Alton Shores Road area .....did not "scamper away" like most animals...I had seen them before in maine at a hunting lodge we stayed at. The owner of the camp complained that they had taken two of her cats. I have little dogs and don't let them wander at night at my camp. My daughter and I found the carcass of what appeared to be a fox on Hills Pond a few weeks ago, and wondered if a fisher had taken it.

[MAXUM]

Guess I was very lucky becuase a couple of years ago while I was out hunting I saw one chasing a squirrel around. It was fascinating to watch the two of them for several minutes playing what looked like hide and seek, until the squirrel made the mistake of heading up a tree and no kidding that fisher bolted right up the tree behind it and had the squirrel cornered. I figured that fisher had it's fun picking on the squirrel so I twiched my leg which of course blew my cover and that fisher took off like a bat out of hell. Poor squirrel didn't move for about 30 minutes....

Until I got home and looked it up I figured it was just a badger of some sort. Pretty cool to see nature in action.... but boy that thing was pretty mean little bugger, especially if you're a squirrel.

[Yankee]

Originally Posted by FLboater

I’ve been told that you do not want to go near them as they will attack if cornered.

The same goes for all animals, including homo sapians.

[kayakn]

We have fisher cats in West Alton. I have seen one at dusk and in early AM on the railroad bed in our area. They look like a mean weasel. At night, or early morning before dawn, they have gone through our yard. When they cry, it sounds like a baby's blood curdling scream. Wakes one up from a sound sleep, jump off the bed and instant sweat! Always keep the cats in during the night... The dog even growls when these animals go through the yard. I would not want to get close to one of these... They look very aggressive...

[Chris Craft]

They are mean nasty little suckers!! We have one in our area up in Maine. As has been said when they cry you can hear it for miles. It is like a haunted movie type cry. They will kill any household pet. Endangered or not if I see the sucker he is a goner!! Figure it is either him or perhaps my kid and you know how that goes

[tricia1218]

I was walking on the railroad tracks on Paugus Bay heading towards South Down Shores with my parents dog when the dog took intrest in a hole going under the tracks, when I got close enough there were bones all around the hole, and I have also heard the screeching cry at night, very creepy. The dog started acting strange growling and whining so we ran most of the way back home.

[ghfromaltonbay]

Several years ago around dusk we saw one scoot across Rt. 28 in Barnstead near the intersection with North Rd. (right by the sign for Blueberries). It certainly is a mean looking critter.

[pmj]

Several years ago our golden retreiver, who happened to be the self elected neighborhood watch dog, chased a fisher cat up a tree. What an interesting looking animal...the fisher cat stayed up in the tree for several hours while the dog sat and guarded the tree...fortunately we convinced the dog to just let it go and come home.

[ApS]

Originally Posted by kayakn

"...They look like a mean weasel..."

That is certainly an accurate description! (While adding, a mean and well-fed weasel.) Fishers are sometimes seen by boat on sun-lit shorelines, so they're not exclusively noctural critters.

After midnight several years ago, a neighbor's shred-eared, monster Maine Coon cat cornered what was likely a fisher-cat on their dock. Both were screaming—but only one was certainly a cat!

Deploying a new and powerful "Streamlite" halogen flashlight shined-back one pair of very active blue cat eyes and one pair of hulking amber eyes.

It's always best not to intervene with Nature, I say.

[kunamola]

2 summers ago as I stood on the deck of our house on the east side of Melvin Bay, a fishercat ran through the yard. I happened to have my camera and got a picture of the back end as it went off towards the woods between us and 109. When I downloaded the picture it was just a fuzzy blur; that animal can sure move fast. I wasn't sure what it was until I looked it up in an identification book.

12 summers ago my 2 sons, my mother and I came face to face with a Bobcat not far from our house. We were walking down an old road paralleling Copps Brook near the intersection of 109 and 109A and were not far from the lake when standing on the road, about 20 feet away, looking at us was this large cat. He just stood there, didn't blink or turn away at all. I said to my mom "that sure is a big house cat" then I paused and said "I don't think that is a house cat" It was like living in slow motion. Mom said calmly to us, "let's turn slowly and walk away." She put the 7 year old in front of her and I had the 2 year old riding on my back already. We walked about 50 feet when I turned my head and the cat was slowly padding his way behind us as we walked. I said to mom "the cat is following us" and she said "I think now is the time we start running". I did not know I could run so fast with a 2 year old on my back! We didn't stop until we were almost back to the old farm house where our car was parked. The cat abandoned us somewhere along the way, but we were pretty shaken up by the experience. Since our house is not far from there we kept an especially good eye on the kids the rest of that year. I think the cat had been dumpster diving at Barvel Wang and we startled it.

[EricP]

We used to live in Allenstown by Bear Brook State Park. A Fisher cat got zapped by a tranformer on the power pole across the street from us one night. I checked it out the next morning in the light, that is one mean looking critter. Has a long narrow face with fangs, and the paws look more like fingers and the nails look sharp and very strong.

We also saw a mountain lion outside our bedroom window one night at about 1:30 am. That was one strong looking cat, very muscular and walked through the yard like he owned it. I wish I had a camera that night, never saw it again.

[SteveA]

Thanks for your excellent post. The links are great.

We have fishers on the conservation land behind our house. The habitat is exactly as described on several of the links you posted. Old growth forest, lot's of tall trees and ready access to water from the Gunstock River.

Several others on this thread described the "night howling". It sounds like a woman screaming. And it will wake you from a sound sleep! We have been able to spot them on several occasions. But trying to take pictures has been a bust. They move off as soon as you try to get anywhere close to them. We did get several very blurry images, but nothing worth posting.

SteveA

[Pineedles]

I too looked at he sites you listed and they are very interesting. One question though, who's capturing wild apple trees and why won't they let them go.

Management
The following management strategies will help maintain fisher habitat:

Retain a diversity of dead, dying and down woody material, including cavity trees.
Retain or create dense forest patches of softwood understory cover.
Release and maintain wild apple trees.

[MJM]

Originally Posted by pmj

Several years ago our golden retreiver, who happened to be the self elected neighborhood watch dog, chased a fisher cat up a tree. What an interesting looking animal...the fisher cat stayed up in the tree for several hours while the dog sat and guarded the tree...fortunately we convinced the dog to just let it go and come home.

You and your Golden were very lucky. Our neighbor's 95lb dog received some serious lacerations to his hindquarters from a Fisher. The Vet's theory was that the dog chased the Fisher, but at some point must've cornered it - they then get very aggressive, so the Fisher became the chaser, and did its damage to the dog even as he was fleeing! Pretty scary.

We saw the Fisher a few times prior to that, and a few times after, but then never again (this was last Spring).

[Lin]

LOL, it does sound bizzare, I have a degree in forest and park management, when I was at college in a wildlife mgt class we got permission on some property to "release" some wild apple trees for wildlife. So I'm thinking they mean the same thing. We went into the field with pruners and saws and actually released the apple trees from vines and other vegetation choking them out. The following year we went back and cut some branches back, made sure no vines were growing and cut back some of the tall grasses at the base of the trees. Nice to hear the links are appreciated.

Originally Posted by Pineedles

I too looked at he sites you listed and they are very interesting. One question though, who's capturing wild apple trees and why won't they let them go.

Management
The following management strategies will help maintain fisher habitat:

Retain a diversity of dead, dying and down woody material, including cavity trees.
Retain or create dense forest patches of softwood understory cover.
Release and maintain wild apple trees.

[kayakn]

We saw a very large Fisher Cat this morning around 6:30 AM. It came from the northwest tip of Sleeper's and crossed the ice to Smith Point. They can move. It kept slipping on the ice and sliding/bouncing (ouch) as all fours went out from under it. Was actually comical. Must have stolen something from the birds as a number of sea(lake)gulls were following/circling close by.... Very impressed by the size and speed...

[RattlesnakeHunter]

Originally Posted by Chris Craft

They are mean nasty little suckers!! We have one in our area up in Maine. As has been said when they cry you can hear it for miles. It is like a haunted movie type cry. They will kill any household pet. Endangered or not if I see the sucker he is a goner!! Figure it is either him or perhaps my kid and you know how that goes

Fisher cats are just a turbo charged weasel!!!! Like a Mink or even a skunk!

Funny to see how people make them seem so terrible and dangerous... there is quite a bit of ignorance training weaved with the people that like aniamls. They have a weird and eerie scream but does not mean they will bother people! They are VERy shy and run away from you as soon as they see you... why would someone think they would endanger their children and if they see one kill it??? What stupid IGNORANT LOGIC!

Fisher cats eat whatever they can catch and will eat LOTS of apples!!!!!
A child eating moster that likes to eat fruit?

No wonder we are killing off anything that does not look cute and soft!

Kevin

[rander7823]

This trait is not unique to New England. Fisher attacks on domestic pets in the vicinity of forested areas is well documented throughout their range. Their attacks can be sudden and deadly, in spite of the presence of nearby human protectors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_(animal)

[RattlesnakeHunter]

but your loose cat eats HOW MANY BIRDS and other things?

I love my cats and keep them indoors...... It seems a bit more balanced that if you leave your cat to roam it may meet a few dangers along the way.
I am a HUGE cat lover but we should not think that it is okay for our pets to kill whatever they want and freak out if something gets them while hunting!

Cats can be brutal...... think about noting how many animals die from just 10 outdoor cats..... in one year...the pile of bodies would be HUGE!


Kevin

[Keith]

They ate two of my parents cats in the last year. I have seen them in the backyard 2 times in the last 3 months.

[Dave R]

Some random trivia to add:

I was told by a reputable source that NH fish and Game traded 25 trapped wild fisher cats for 25 trapped wild turkeys with PA Fish and Game back in the mid 70s when the wild turkey restoration project started. The turkeys were released in Pawtuckaway State Park. The program continued and there are now 25,000+ wild turkeys statewide. Not sure what happened to the fishers in PA...

[gravy boat]

We caught one in a have-a heart and later set it free over the fence. There should be a few shots of the fisher in my Gallery. Beautiful, but defintely ready to rumble!

GB