The following story and fisher cat pictures are from one of our website visitors in Andover, MA.
Our dog (Annie – Golden Retriever) was going crazy this morning (April 6, 2009) to get out into our (Andover, MA) backyard. My wife noticed something brown walking along the top rail of our chain link fence and recognized it as a Fisher Cat. When Annie ran out, the Fisher ran up a small pine tree. Not realizing it was on the other side of the fence, it nervously chattered at us while we took pictures of it. It eventually realized it was protected, climbed down the tree (only a few feet in front of me), leapt into the neighbor’s yard and ran off. Annie cornered one up a tree a couple years ago as well.
In the second photo, you can notice the blurred horizontal line toward the bottom. That’s the top rail of the chain link fence.
This is the blood curdling screeching one of our followers heard night in the woods outside his house. He said the video doesn’t do it just justice, it sounds much worse in real life. After doing research, they think it is a fisher cat, a ferocious weasel like predator that can attack small pets. Needless to say, he says he is very worried about our small dogs being outside now!
Difference between a FisherCat Scream and Red Fox Sound
The user who submitted this video thinks it may be a fisher cat but after listening to it, it almost sounds like a dog or a fox bark. Some of our readers say the Red Fox Scream is often mistaken for a fisher at scream. What do you think? Is this video below a fisher or Red Fox Sounds?
Fisher Cat Attack – Department of Environmental Management Officials are searching for a fisher cat that attacked a 6-year-old boy on Karen Drive in Hopkinton, Rhode Island on Monday June 22, 2009.
Police say the boy was waiting for the bus with his mother and other kids, when the 20-to-25 pound animal appeared. The mother told the animal attacked when the group started walking away.
The mother kicked the animal off her son, and another child threw a backpack at the fisher cat. A neighbor eventually chased the fisher cat away.
The boy was taken to Westerly Hospital, and treated for bites on his leg. Fisher cats are relatives of the weasel. They tend to be nocturnal, and often prey on smaller animals like chipmunks and squirrels.
Fishers by nature do not like open spaces and prefer tree cover or coniferous forests to dwell in. heavily wooded places like New England make an ideal habitat for Fisher cats.
New England Fisher cats are one of the largest members of the Mustelid family, which includes species like the mink, weasel, otter and skunk. These are noted nocturnal animals and therefore very hard to observe. They are however active during both daytime as ell as night time and that too, mostly during the time just before sunset and just before sunrise, when it mainly searches for food. Their cry is similar to that of a high pitched one of a child’s and therefore can sound very eerie in the nights.
The fisher cat second in size only to the river otter, and ranks amongst the largest members of the weasel family ever, to dwell in Massachusetts. These animals were displaced and their numbers dwindled many years ago, when the farmers cleared the forests and surrounding areas for agriculture. Fishers who are susceptible to trapping and logging were badly affected during this time and were forced to move out into other neighboring areas such as scattered locations in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, and Virginia. However due to their departure from the aforementioned area, the porcupine population started swelling; and in order to control this menace, the people of New England re-introduced the fishers to curb the porcupine numbers. Nowadays, fishers can be found in virtually all areas or communities in Massachusetts, with the exception of Cape Cod and the Islands. Continue reading →
