anyone ever heard of or seen a fishercat?

T

thelonehowler

New member
so about two weeks ago the wife and I are sitting and watching the NASCAR race .my couch faces the neighbors side lot,there is still snow on the ground which mad it very easy to see. Suddenly I saw a jet black animal run down the hill and stop rite at the edge of the field.at first I thought it was the neighbors black cat but this animal was way to long and twice as big as the neighbors cat and had a bushy long tail.long story short,was talking with a friend and he asks if I have ever seen a fisher cat and tells me our Dec. Have released a bunch of these fishercats.he Google's it for me and lo and behold it was the animal I say two weeks ago.just wondered if anyone else has seen or heard of these animals
 
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I can't imagine there are too many Fishers in NY. Very cool animals and quite the hunters. ive only caught glimpses of them and seen a few that were trapped.
 
There are a few here that have been transplanted a few years ago. The only one I've actually seen was run over by a friend of mine. It had a chip in it and it's history showed it was 4 years old and planted about 70 miles away from where it was hit by my friends pickup. It was a lot bigger than what I thought they would be. There used to be a population of them in the Olympics but they had all but disappeared.
 
There are a few here that have been transplanted a few years ago. The only one I've actually seen was run over by a friend of mine. It had a chip in it and it's history showed it was 4 years old and planted about 70 miles away from where it was hit by my friends pickup. Originally it had a tracking collar on it but that had come off, it was 9 months old when it was released , It was a lot bigger than what I thought they would be. There used to be a population of them in the Olympics but they had all but disappeared. I've seen a few Martins when I hunted in Alberta, they always showed up at the moose pole.
 
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We've got a large fisher in our woods, shows up on the game camera's. He's large now as I believe him to be around 4 or so years old. Got any porcupines they will make short work of them. I also one morning when yote hunting saw a small one way in the distance, but fishers are a solitary animal and get together to mate only. Fierce animal. They'll go after your squirrel population also.
 
They are trapped here in the GWN. I've also had them come to a distress call. Bigger than a marten and smaller than a wolverine. Two more animals I've had come to the call.
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Ever notice how the same critter or fish can have a different name in another area? What do they call a pike as you move around? Many are more a 'slang' type local name.

A 'fisher cat' is just a regular fisher, large member of the weasel family. I only saw one once or twice that wasn't in a trap. They roam in more of the 'big timber' areas. Years ago I was deer hunting in MI when the leaves where loud as cornflakes. I was on a ridge still hunting. I saw a fisher out a ways below me. As I stood there watching it some crunching caught my ear. The wind was right so I waited it out. As luck would have it, a fair sized 8 pointer walked between me and the distant fisher. It was an easy shot with the 308.

My other fisher story is releasing one from a leg hold trap back in the day, before they were legal. We got it done but the fisher had a bad attitude. I used a large log to pin it down as we took the trap off, it was fine as it loped away.

They are also one of the few animals that routinely kills and eats porcupines, gets at their unprotected underbelly.
 
We have a good population of Fischer here in MN. We can only trap them. Not a difficult animal to catch.


By the way.....New York has a large population of Fischer. A whole lot of that state is Mountains and forests.

Tim
 
U.P. of Michigan We have plenty of Fisher--Caught my first one in "76"-They weren't legal than He was caught in a fox set--Beautiful fur they have been legal for many years now and I've caught many-----------svb
 
They are around in Wisconsin.

I helped my neighbor release one from one on his coyote sets two winters ago.

my college buddy who lives about 160 miles or so farther north of me has also had to release some from his trap sets for coyote and fox every once in a while.
 
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