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.

Video of the Fisher Cat

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.

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.

Until very recently, only rare reports of fisher sightings have been reported by the Massachusetts Audubon Society; however, since 2000, these sightings have increased substantially in number especially in areas of eastern Massachusetts. Reasons for this increase in number have been attributed to reforestation of land, which was previously reserved for farming.

There have been many wildlife laws in place which dictate the manner in which these fishers are to be captured in required to control their numbers and humanely destroyed. These laws have helped keep a check on their habitat and numbers.

Fishers are reserved by nature and are solitary in their mannerisms. They are not known to hunt in groups and are only seen in groups during the mating season. These animals will never den near human dwellings and normally keep their distance from humans.

Even thought their numbers have increased in New England area in US, fishers are hardly a threat to humans even thought they are known carnivores. Fishers prefer snowshoe hares, mice shrews, carrion, etc, and have been known to eat fruit and berries too. It is one of the few animals, which can attack, kill and eat a porcupine!

The population density is known to be one per 2.6 – 7.5 sq. km, but can be as low as 1 per 200 sq. km. The daily movement is observed to be 1.5 to 3 km in a day, but this distance is known to vary given the weather conditions. Fishers walk on the soles of their feet and can climb and swim very well. The fisher paws, have, on its soles large surfaces to help it run on snow without sinking in easily. If its disturbed by any creature or anything, fisher cats tend to arch its back like a cat and is known to hiss, growl, snarl or spit as well as give off an offensive odor!

The fishers are known for their thick fur coats, which provide good insulation against the cold and inclement weather.

Video created by: Back Yard Cameras

Fisher cats are carnivorous by nature and are solitary hunters. Their prey include snowshoe hare, porcupine, mice, moles and shrews along with certain types of squirrels. They are also known to eat certain birds – which are ground nested like the turkey and grouse, fruit and berries that they may find, as well as a certain type of deer – carrion.

These animals are also known for their unique killing style. The fisher approaches a porcupine from the front i.e. in the same direction the porcupine is facing. This would cause the porcupine to curl up in to a protective ball to protect itself. The fisher will then resort to making numerous jumps over the porcupine so as to target the only part left uncovered by the porcupine – it’s face. However, the porcupine for its part, starts turning or rotating itself to avoid it’s face being harmed by the fisher. In doing so, it gets confused with the numerous jumps and then gives up in fatigue in trying to protect itself and starts to loosen the tight body curl. Seeing this, the fisher then resorts to repeatedly striking the porcupine’s face, thereby making it bleed profusely; and killing it. Once this is done, the fisher then turns the porcupine over on it back and then starts eating or biting it on the stomach – where the flesh is the softest and unprotected.

The mating season of these animals are from late February / March to April and it is a known fact that the specie have a circular patch of fur on the central pad of their hind paws which are marked plantar glands and which are known to give off a distinctive odor which is used as communication during this mating season. Female fishers breed from one year of age and the fisher embryos undergo a one-year gestation period. Therefore, litters are produced on an annual basis and are born in “dens” made high up – around 20 to 30 feet off the ground – in the hollows of trees. The average size of the litter is 3 kits and the mother fishers nurse these kits for the first 4 months of their lives.

Fishers are arboreal by nature and are known to travel along ridges, crossing river stream valleys and generally found in places, which have continuous tree cover. Fishers by nature avoid open spaces and are known to dwell in mature softwood, mixed hardwood – softwood and forested wastelands. For their dens, fishers have been known to use hollow trees, rocky outcrops, root masses, old porcupine dens, etc.

In order to find their prey, the fishers use their strong sharp claws to claw away at wood pieces, etc covering or protecting their prey. During the cold winters, the fishers use their temporary dens to stay in such as the hollows of trees, porcupine dens etc, as mentioned earlier and are even known to hide under the snow for a short time.

During the past few years however, the numbers of this specie has declined because of trapping and large-scale habitat loss. These animals are; however, shy, secretive and very difficult to breed in zoos. New Hampshire is one of the many places in US along with some parts of Minnesota, Sierra Nevada and a few others where this specie has been found and known to dwell. Fishers are mostly used to control porcupine populations and have therefore been introduced in many other places as well.

Fisher cats have been blamed for attacking and killing domestic cats in every area that they were spotted and due to this they have also been labeled as Fisher the cat killer. While Fisher Cats are ferocious enough to attack house cats and have done that, a lot of what is said about them is folklore and exaggerated. Fisher cats are definitely dangerous due to their predatory nature but they are probably made out to be more dangerous than they really are.

An interesting thing about Fisher cats is that they are one of the few predators of the porcupine and have developed a method to attack and kill porcupines. Due to this reason they are used for controlling porcupine population naturally.

Fisher Cats average at around 4 kilos and some of the large Fisher cat animals can grow to as much as 7 kilos.

Perhaps the question that most people ask is – how does a Fisher cat sound? The internet is sprinkled with Fisher cat sound clips and Fisher Cat photos and you can hear what people think a fisher cat sounds like below:

The most striking thing about the Fisher cat audio is that it very closely resembles someone crying out for help and that is what freaks out most people. The fisher cat call in most cases is just a call for mating however they are known to make sounds just before or after hunting.

The Fisher Cat is a nocturnal animal and the most Fisher cat screams and Fisher Cat screeches can be heard at night. Since it is a nocturnal animal it hunts in the night and is not easily spotted in the day.

The Fisher Cat animals live and hunt alone and only socialize during their mating season. The females start breeding at the age of one while the male do not reach sexual age till they are two.

These days Fisher Cat news is mostly bad news, most of the times when they are featured in the news it is because they have caused concern to the human population either by way of attacking their pets or by their screams.

Most of these uproars are a mix of emotion and reality, while Fisher Cats are spotted in most of the incidents, the degree of damage done by them is probably a bit exaggerated.

Fisher cats are ferocious predators belonging to the weasel family and are known for their eerie screams and liking for house cats.

The sound of a Fisher cat is very shrill and resembles someone calling for help. The shrillness lends a certain high pitch to the sound and makes it sound like a woman or a child. Most people who hear the Fisher cat call for the first time are fairly convinced that they are hearing a human calling out for help.

The Fisher cat is a nocturnal animal and the fisher cat cry is sometimes a hunting cry and at others the Fisher cat call is just a mating call. It is well established that the Fisher cat makes the sounds to mate and attract other Fisher cats but people have also noticed the Fisher cat animal scream out just before or after a kill.

There is a lot of eeriness associated with the Fisher cat call and most of it is to do with the ferociousness of the animal and the creepy sound of the Fisher cats screech, compounded by the fact that it is found in the wilderness and can be heard mainly during nights. For example picture yourself in the place of this family that are going through this lonely wooded area in the dark and hear this lady like screech in the distance.

While you can’t be sure whether this is a person or the fisher cat animal, you can be sure that being in such environs and hearing such a scream will run a chill down your spine.

Fisher Cat sounds are usually constant and you can hear them at a regular interval like in this video

In the video you can notice that the animal screams out every few seconds and the pitch and the volume is constant. While the animals do not prey in the day time they can still be spotted moving about. The sounds are much more prominent during the night and people have witnessed these animals screeching on for hours and hours together. More often than not the Fisher Cat sounds are going to be constant and it will become a haunting experience. The Fisher cat sounds especially weighs on the minds of people who have pets like rabbits or cats. This is because Fisher cats are really dangerous and have the reputation of pretty much killing all small animals in the surrounding areas that are not kept indoors. While much of this sound like old wives’ tales the incidents that happen every year across United States give real evidence that the animals are deadly predators.

Usually the one off sound means that the Fisher cat animal is either closing on a hunt or has already killed its victim.

Next time you hear these haunting sounds make sure that all your pets are indoors and that you comfort your children and not let them get too scared by the sound.

Are these sounds from a Fisher Cat or Red Fox screech?

Fisher cat screeches are often mistaken for red fox cries.  Here are two different examples as pointed out from one of our readers:

These are fox calls or screams on this video

This is the sound of a Fisher Cat