Fisher Cat Screech – Information On The FisherCat Noise

What does a Fisher Cat Screech Sound Like?

If you are hearing a Fisher cat’s screech for the first time and you have not been at your wit’s end, you are a really brave person. Most people who hear a fisher cat screech for the first time get their heart pounding and pray that they never hear a Fisher cat scream again.

The fact that the Fisher cat is a nocturnal animal makes the screech even more terrifying. The screech itself sounds like a woman or a child screaming at a high pitch and calling out for help. In fact there have been several cases where people who hear Fisher cat sounds for the first time think it is a lady or a child calling out for help and end up calling the police.

Fisher cats are found in forests and suburban areas and generally these areas are secluded in the night which makes the Fisher cat screech even more horrifying. Even after hearing a Fisher cat cry for several days it is difficult to come to terms with the Fisher cat noise, especially for children who get scared of these noises every time.

You can find Fisher cat audio on the web but generally these are recorded by people around their backyards and it is their best judgment of the sounds of a Fisher cat.

For instance, hear this Fisher cat audio

and you can hear a sound like a baby’s yell. There is usually some debate on whether the sound is authentic or not but looking at the comments you can make out whether something has a high degree of being an actual fisher cat audio or just some birds in the woods.

The sound in this video seems pretty close to the actual thing based on the comparison with other sounds of a Fisher cat and of course hearing the real thing. Since Fisher cats are nocturnal and stay in the woods it is extremely difficult to find an audio and video which captures the screams of the fisher cat at the same time.

The overarching characteristic of the sounds of Fisher cat is its similarity to the human shriek. People have often described Fisher cat sounds to a terrified shriek by someone who is about to be run down by a truck, a woman yelling out for help at the top of her voice or a baby’s high pitched screaming.
Some people who had neighbors with children have actually gone down to the neighbor’s house to check whether it were the kids who were crying the entire night and all was well.

If you live near the woods or in a forested area don’t be alarmed at hearing this high pitched shriek much like a child shrieking, however keep in mind that Fisher Cats are ferocious predators and can attack you and be very careful if you have small pets. Pets like cats have known to be prime target of this fierce Fisher cat predator and there have been several cases of reported injuries to pet cats by owners.

49 responses to “Fisher Cat Screech – Information On The FisherCat Noise

  1. Hi – i searched to hear the sound of a Fisher cat because i have heard this same eerie sound in my backyard several times. My dogs went crazy and so did i. . . sometimes it was sooo very close as to be right outside my window.

    However, i have also listened to posted FOX screams and those sound very much the same and we certainly have foxes too. What’s up with that?

    Please let me know the difference, if any. Thanks. Whatever this creature is outside my house it has decimated my livestock including our local squirrel population!

  2. Hi, I just heard the most awful hair raising screams/screeches coming from the woods. My dog was barking like crazy as it continued over the course of a few minutes. I was trying to explain it; something like an extremely loud screaming bird… Having listened to the audio, that is exactly what I heard, a fishercat. They have been seen around here over the last couple of years and have left a trail of dead cats (one being mine). Are they territorial, or will this one possibly move on?

  3. That cry is a fox…surprisingly, baby fox seperated from their family have a very loud cry for a little animal….really carries at night. This spring I followed similar cries early in the Am that led me too a young fox pup who wandered away from his den. Hell of a racket for a 2 lb monster. Adults have a similar call aling with a wide range of other calls, barks, and yips.

  4. I get out of work at 2:30am and will sit in my cellar to unwind. Well a couple of weeks ago I could here that exact noise and it sounded like it was right outside the cellar door. I grabbed my, million candle, flash light to take a look into the woods. That night I did not see anything, but after a couple of minutes listeneing to that noise, and my heart beat (LOL), it sounded like it flew, as in fly, away. Here I am thinking it is a prehistoric Pterodactyl that has come back. After hereing this audio and finding out it is a land animal the sound I heard was it running away (thank God).

    Well last night my wife heard the same cry right at dusk. The dog was facing the woods and not doing anything but watch. When my wife opened the door the dog came running with the cat in tow. She grabbed my light and did see the reflection of the eyes very close to the edge of te woods. After a few more minutes it turned and ran into the woods with alot of noise coming from the forest’s floor debris it was stepping on.

    Thanks for sharing that audio and I will see if it comes back and try and get my own audio to share, hopefuly a video also.

    Tom

  5. i heard this sound the other night and i thought it was a bird. the scary thing is every time i turned on my light it would run right to it. my neighbors said it was a fox though.

  6. ohmigosh – you should hear what I hear…. (sounds like a holiday song?) – NOPE – it scares the crap out of me – it began 4 months ago – and has continued… the little beast is getting more and more daring – in fact – we can hear it as it arrives beneath our window from the sand pits behind the house… I cannot stand it – in fact – have now begun to plug in the MAG flashlights because I am going to find that fisher cat and …… help?!?

  7. Well, I find it interesting that the poster above me mentions a sand pit because we too have a sand pit (at a distance, but not far) from our home… we live in New England, very wooded location and over the past week & a half we have been hearing these horrific shrill screams. Makes my heart stop! I have cats that enjoy being out doors and try as I might to get them in at dusk, they have different ideas…

    Up until that noise starts in, then I abruptly run for the door, open it just as my cats either come bolting in or I see them frozen in fear out by our picnic table.

    So far what ever it is, I’ve managed to ‘chase it off’, the past three times I’ve heard it. I can’t tell if it’s a fisher cat or a fox… if it’s a fox and if the video on youtube is correct, then the sound we are hearing is that of an alarm call…

    Our neighbor up the way lost three rabbits to a fisher cat and she was devistated… I have a rabbit too and dread the very idea of a fisher cat messing with any one of my beloved pets.

    I wonder if Fish & Wildlife might be willing to assist us?

    Over the next couple of days, I’ll try to record the sounds we here and post it to youtube… maybe then someone can confirm for us, what it is exactly that I’m hearing.

  8. last wednesday night i heard the high pitched screeches and it went on from 2-5 am and i was wondering if they will move to a new area or stay in my woods and about a month ago my sister was in the woods with her friend and she saw a dark figure jump up and run and as she describes it it made the same sound as the video will the fisher stay in my woods or move?

  9. Well I’ve never heard a fisher cat,I may have seen one today though,I wasn’t wearing my glasses so I’m not sure,anyway this sounds like a fox to me,a couple weeks ago I startled one and it made the exact sound as this and seemed to want me to follow it,turns out I was ten feet from its den,which had at least one pup in it.So I say fox.

  10. We have a sand pit behind our house in the new england area as well and herd this noise. It was at dusk so i dont know if that makes a difference but it sounded like this clip.

  11. my friend and i were sitting in our bush fort, and all of the sudden we heard a noise that sounded exactly like a crow. but the weird thing was that it was coming closer. out of nowhere we heard a second noise. we both thought that it was a crow. out of nowhere we saw two animals about 3 feet long with a dark coat about 7-8 lbs each. i yelled “get up, get up, get up”. my friend asked “why,why why?”. and i answereed that it was a fisher. so we both jumperd up onto our fort and we both felt like our hearts were going to pop out of our chests. my friend thought that they were racoons, but we both weren’t sure what it was. so we went online and looked up a picture of a fisher and then we were sure that the two animals that we saw were fishers. the noise we heard was exactly the same as the noise in this clip.

  12. We live in Acton, MA, and we have seen fishers on our property a couple of times, but tonight at 9:00 we heard its screech…it sounded just like the recording on this webpage…talk about freaking out the cats. One ran upstairs and hid. I went outside to check on the chickens and they were all awake and freaked out in their coop.

  13. This is exactly what I have heard at my house in midcoast maine. I have lost about 5 cats in 8 years.
    In the summertime, the fishers come out and I have actually seen the fisher as it is making that sound in my back yard. I have also seen it chasing after my current cat last summer, I chased into the woods at 2:30 am to try and scare it away. I tried to explain to family and friends what it sounded like. A little research brought me to your page.
    thank you for posting it!

  14. We have woods all around us in MA and have heard this screeching sound many times late at night. It sounds very similar to this audio only louder and perhaps at a higher pitch. It is eerie to say the least.

  15. Yep the other day I heard this noise up over yonder and just had to see what was making all the ruckus. So i grabbed the ol’ 20 gauge and saw this damn brown beaver lookin’ like thing. Shot him up and actually cooked him up real nice for some good eatings.

  16. This is the same horrible sound we’ve heard at our house, twice. It was very scary, and I almost did call the police. We live in a rural area in South Central Pennsylvania. I’ve lived near woods most of my life from North Carolina to New York, but I’ve never heard anything like this till this year. It’s a very disturbing thing to hear, and you will never forget it. Now at least, I know what it was–hope to never hear it again.

  17. This sound is of a fox.. Many live nearby and sometimes one calls like this in broad daylight.
    It says in Wiki that the awful, disturbing cry of the Fisher Cat may be a myth. It is odd that no definitive sound recording of their vocalizations is on the internet..

    This is a typical red fox call.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-kP3_t8OOM

    This is the sound of a distressed rabbit.
    https://www.rmvh.com/Movies/VarmintSafariJack.mp3

    Rabbits caught by predators cry out very loudly and it is an awful noise that might be described as “like a baby being murdered or a woman screaming”.

    Just saying.

  18. This morning at 7 a.m. I was walking through my brother’s yard and I heard noise in the bush along his stonewall. To my surprise a big beautiful fisher cat stood on the wall looking at me. My heart was pounding in excitement as he walked toward me. I was not afraid and was slowly trying to get my camera out to take a picture but before I could he sniffed the air near me and ran off into the woods. We have heard the cries in the woods at night and I have gotten pictures on my game cameras of t it. I live in Wareham, Mass.

  19. i heard a strange sound almost like a dying large bird…. it really freaked me out because it was coming from my neighbors yard.i don’t live near woods so i don’t know if it was a fisher.anyoe got anouther idea of what it could be?

  20. THT JUS HAPPEND TO ME ROGHT AT THIS MOMENT I CALLED THE COPS I NVR HEARD A CAT MAKE THT KIND OF POLICE NOW I FEEL SILLY BUT I HAPPY TO KNO THT IT WASNT A BABY 🙂 MY HEART WAS POUNDING AFTER HEARING THT NOISE

  21. THT JUS HAPPEND TO ME RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT I CALLED THE POLICE I NVR HEARD A CAT MAKE THT KIND OF SOUND NOW I FEEL SILLY BUT I HAPPY TO KNO THT IT WASNT A BABY :)MY HEART WAS POUNDING AFTER HEARING THT NOISE

  22. i have heard this noise inmy back yard for some time. it startled me at first, but since i am a smart man i relized that it is a fusher cat that is making this horrific noise. when i have to take my midnight poop, i always startle myself hearing this eerie noise. i jump off the toilet seat.

  23. two nights ago, my friends were outside my patio smoking and I was inside with others watching a movie, and then they came running inside and started yelling that there was an animal eating another animal and making the freakiest sounds ever. [ they were high, so we kind of shrugged it off].

    the next night, they came running inside again and we came outside and heard it ourselves. It didn’t sound like this video, it sounds like a pterodactyl or some shit. So scary, not to mention it began to lightning and hail.

    Also, I live in CT on the sound, so I feel like it’s pretty far south for a fisher. NO idea what it is.

  24. My husband guessed it was a fisher cat and when I turned on the video of one, it’ the same noise. ours was so much louder though, he was so close and we have heard him several times at the house we just moved into which is very wooded. The sound is so creepy and scary. So glad I found this.

  25. My husband guessed it was a fisher cat and when I turned on the video of one, it’ the same noise. ours was so much louder though, he was so close and we have heard him several times at the house we just moved into which is very wooded. The sound is so creepy and scary. So glad I found this.

  26. Wow, if I find one more nighttime video mistakenly calling calling fox calls fisher… What a bunch of complete misinformation. The fisher is all ready misunderstood enough as it is without this website completely misleading people with this nonsense. If you hear a repeating lone call in the middle of the night, it’s not a fisher. This video is of a fox, and no member of the weasel family makes a sound remotely like this. The other references to fishers ‘screaming’… those are raccoon.

  27. I live in Danbury , CT in a wooded area. Last summer, I kept hearing strange noises at night from my yard that sounded like a distress call. It was like nothing I had ever heard before, and I’m a nature nut, but I thought it might be a fox or raccoon. After seeing a black animal that I swear was fisher in my driveway two nights ago–my outdoor sensor light would come on, yet I could never see what triggered it– I listened to the above recording because people at work thought I was completely bonkers when I said that I had seen a fisher in my yard. It is the exact same sound I heard last summer. Ironically, a few days earlier, I had watched Marty Stouffer’s Wild America episode where he finds and adopts orphaned baby fishers.

  28. My family and some friends of ours camped for a week last summer on a piece of property close to the Boy Scout camp in RI. The first night we were all settling down in our tents for the night we heard this horrible noise that I could only describe a “Demonic.” Immediately, I had this sick feeling in my stomache, as I listened to the eerie screams. I knew it was a fisher cat, and at that moment I thought of the fact that the only thing separating this thing from us was a thin piece of nylon. LOL!! We did, however, have no physical encounter with the animal.

    1. That sounds like a fox. I could apply your description — “demonic” scream – to the fox in our neighborhood which I have heard, and seen with my own eyes.

  29. Twice I have heard red foxes make an unearthly loud screeching sound, repeated over and over as they ran off. I know they were foxes because I saw them.

  30. I have heard both fox and fisher cat. This sounds like a fox. The fisher cat is exactly as others have described it. It sounds like a baby screaming while being tortured (not that I have heard a baby being tortured). I was sitting near the Delaware River around my campfire and heard the most horrible scream behind me. There is no mistaking that sound once you hear it.

  31. last night i heard this sound when i went to bed after lisening for a few minutes i got up to see if everyone in the house was okay. ithought someone needed help we finally figured it out what it was this happened in taunton ma on the berkly line very scarry

  32. I have lived in dense wooded areas of CT my whole life and have had many many fox around over the years but NEVER heard them make a screech like the fisher cat. This year, we have a fisher cat close by… on our walkway, and next to the shed, on the porch, places where fox prefer to avoid. No mistake here…the cats stay in at night and the screeching, and my golden, lets us know when this critter gets too close!! Very creepy.

  33. Has anyone heard a fisher attack and recorded it. We had something attack an animal in the pond at the cottage a couple weeks ago, and this thing had a viscious growl (one of THE scariest sounds i have ever heard) and i don,t scare easy it was like it clamped on and then growled as it applyed more force repeatedly as its prey just wimpered.
    I would know that growl if i heard it again. please send me a recording if you have thx Brian. I’m afraid for my pets!!!

    1. Brian,
      Luckily fisher cats are nocturnal so you or pets would only encounter them at night. Just make sure all cats stay indoors (one of the many reasons why cats are better off indoors) & keep dogs on a leash and in a lit area near your house.
      P.s. search youtube! There are so many fisher cat screams. Maybe some growls are up there too.

  34. I had let the dog out to relieve himself around 1am, when he went over towards the woods he stopped half way and just stared into the woods, naturally I called to him to come in, then I heard this thing that sounded like a dieing crow, The “fisher” call almost give me a heart attack lol.

  35. Ok so I live in the St. Louis suburbs and this thing is up allll night screeching. Pretty horrifying noise, and I literally started questioning my sanity, ha. But that audio is to a T of what we have in my neighborhood. Does anyone know how big this thing can get, what category of animal it is, and if it vicious/will kill small animals? Anyway, you have no idea how much I would love to whip out a shot gun and kill this guy. How the heck did it get here anyway? His favorite activity is screaming. Bawrrrrhhhhhh.

  36. I live in Norton MA and have seen both Fisher Cats and red foxes. I’ve witnessed the red fox making this exact sound. For years I had an active fox den in my back yard. Red foxes have several different calls. This is definitely a fox

    1. Hey Heather, I live in Rehoboth, MA! Funny to find someone so close.
      & yeah, I agree, this is definitely a red fox. It’s an alarming sound, just like the fisher, but there are subtle differences. & as far as I know fisher’s have one basic call, which is a mating one that we hear.

  37. I must live in the g-d Fusher cat kingdom!! These coon-beasts are everywhere!! I haven’t slept in 34 days!! I am scraade to close mines eyes, even during the day they haunt my waking moments. One Kusherkat took my baby. Ok, it didn’t take but that coon-killer came close n’ nipped its finger. No sleep!!!

  38. This sounds like a red fox scream. You can youtube both screams. While they’re very very alike, when you hear a fisher at night, concentrate on the sound, then search via youtube. You’ll then know what you heard from recent memory.
    This is maybe the fourth night in a row that I’ve heard a fisher outside at 3:30-3:40am. VERY strange that it’s always at the same time.

  39. i ve seen fisher cats and heard them that’s not what i heard they sounded like two cats fighting like a hissing and yalling cat i just had two outside my window very loud and didn’t leave until car went by i live in a very wooded area but our house close to a dirt road in Vermont this isn’t the first time Ive heard them or seen them i lived in new Hampshire on a back side of a mountain and had one come to my glass door and cry at my cat didn’t know what it was until the game warden saw it and said it was a fisher cat we had a problem with cats missing and a small dog in the neighbor and that’s why believed because a lot of new house were being built on that road which was at one point all highly wooded area

  40. we live in West Wareham, MA. There are woods around us. Our cat, who is very docile< has been shocked several times by something that leaps at our windows… She loves to sit in the window and now we have shut down the window because of "something" leaping violently at her and leaving holes in our screen. The screen holes are coming inward so we know they are from something outside that is threatening our cat. Any ideas. I am thinking Fisher Cat, but not sure!!

  41. Is it at all possible that it is a racoon??? I doubt that. Certainly it is not squirrels or another cat because she (our cat) enjoys watching the squirrels and other cats. She is strictly an indor cat. Thanks for your input!!!

  42. I was in Sanford going into my house at 9:30PM and heard that noise. My three dogs ran into the house. There were two of them about 25 yards apart. Sounded like they were talking to each other. My guess is Fisher Cat, sound will scare anyone.

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