When New Hampshire resident Duke Smith first heard the cry of a Fisher cat he thought he heard a baby dying slowly. The shrieks were constant, high pitched and their resemblance to human voice was really eerie. Several nights and a few missing cat notices later other residents of the neighborhood confirmed that these were the sounds of a Fisher cat.
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:
For your second YouTube video (sound at night), I can tell you that the first sound in the beginning were from a pair of Barred Owls. The next were a couple if raccoons having an argument. Nothing more. I have both in my backyard nightly and the would sound creepy to a person unfamiliar with them. And we also have fishers and red and gray foxes…
Absolutely NOTHING here sounds like the fisher cats in our neighborhood. Our house borders a wildlife preserve and the sounds we hear are INDEED clear and quite weird.
Heard a scream like kids or women screaming their heads off, but with pauses between screems, at 10pm last night in the woods behind our house in Shelburne, MA. The best recording I have heard of a fisher cat scream, the closest what I heard last night, is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re9KZ4_wbP4&feature=player_detailpage
None of the recordings you have hear have quite matched that “either there is a teanagers primal scream therapy session or a murder or animals in heat” eerie scream that we heard in our woods.
In N.Calif. they use raw chicken to get tracks in a special container.. to count numbers.I heard one scream recently and I live way out in the hills.I hope now that the cherries are gone so are they. I have an open cat door and am going to be gone ..I lost a cat last year to a bob cat I thought.
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yer a dikshiit
Coon Dog: that is a fisher behind your house. I hear the same thing every night behind mine. I live in a residential area in a small town in northern Ontario and these things are all over the place killing every small animal they encounter. I hear it kill a small dog a few streets from my house the other night – that scream is something you won’t forget if you ever hear it.
the 2nd video , the 1 that u ask ” whats that sound”… its an owl
Thanks for the info. I thought I was hearing a Fishercat, he/she past through just last night. Washington, MA.
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We heard loud high-pitched screaming last night, pretty sure it was a fisher. But we also have racoons, owls, opossums, and grey fox. I wish i could capture it. I have several outdoor cats that I worry about.
Melissa
Windham Maine
I use to live in Windham off of Varney Mill Rd and awoke to the worst sounds you could imagine one summer morning.When we went outside we found our neighbors cat dead on their porch and a fisher cat taking off around the building so be careful it could happen.
Nice try, but sorry, not very convincing. The first video of the fisher sounds like a hawl or some sort of bird. Also, much of the fisher legend is just that. For one thing, they do not actively prey on cats, according to a study of fisher cats’ stomach contents, a study carried out by the New Hampshire Dept of Fish and Game, in 1994, I think it was. While a fisher may occasionally nab a cat, it is not its first choice of a meal, but keep an eye on your chickens, rabbits, trash cans, road kill, and any baby animals. There are many animals that shriek in the night & there are some people who claim that the fisher cat scream is a myth. I don;t know if it is or isn’t, but just try to find a video on Youtube that actually shows the fisher animal with the sound coming from its mouth. Good luck with that. Okay, so fishers mostly come out at night, but I have seen them in the daytime. And even at night, someone could use wildlife cameras that take nightshots to record the supposed fisher scream, I mean, if it even exists.
I meant to say it sounds like a “hawk”. Sorry.
A fisher killed my main coon cat last night. Bit it in the neck.