BS: a fisher-cat thread

Subject: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Feb 16 - 09:32 AM

Interested to note, using the search feature, that while the fisher-cat does not have a thread of its own, there are Mudcatters who have glimpsed one, and have discussed it on other threads, like the coyote-problems thread. So, here's to the fisher cat.

For a furtive, mind-its-own-business-except-when-it's-hungry animal, the fisher cat generates a great deal of discussion elsewhere on the Internet. The big message about its encroachment on human society, which not enough people stop to think about, is the destruction of the fisher-cat's habitat, the deep deep woods and stands of timber.

I have read statements that the logging/timber industry took an interest in the endangered fisher-cat when its natural prey, the porcupine, proliferated enough to threaten the trees in substantial numbers, what with eating bark and stuff. Hey, there's something that preys on porcupines? and it's almost extinct? would this be a decent investment?

Then there is the discussion about its popular names (the ones fit to print).
The French colonial trappers helped greatly to endanger the fisher-cat; in fact one opinion is that the French are the source of "fisher" in the name. Comes from the French "fichu" or something like, which literally means hide or pelt -- they just thought of the animal as something to harvest.
I wish I could find the opinion, again, that talked about "wild painter." As in, screaming like one. Yes, some say a wild painter is a wild panther. Others say it is a fisher cat, and that the name comes from, again, a language other than English, in one opinion it is a Native American tongue. If I find it again, I will copy it to this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Greg F.
Date: 25 Feb 16 - 11:07 AM

... its encroachment on human society...

You've got that backwards, methinks.


Some info on Fisher calls

Here

And Here

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: gnu
Date: 25 Feb 16 - 12:19 PM

I've seen a fair few in my days passed. Just so happens I saw a video last week posted in a Facebook group of a fisher chasing down a rabbit. They were on snow on a plowed woods road. I had NO idea fishers could run that fast. It was a long chase and the fisher was slowly gaining on the rabbit. The rabbit tried to cut and run into the woods but, to my utter amazement, the fisher was faster in the snow. So... old rabbit?... poor health? Even so, the fisher was impressive. NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART! The caption says "Marten" but it's a fisher... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFUWf1A0WUA

I once saw a fisher at a fresh set of moose guts and coyotes came in. They were upset but the fisher had his fill before he left them to it so they didn't get much. Again, impressive to say the least.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 25 Feb 16 - 04:13 PM

These seem to be good things, we don't have them in the UK mores the pity. We have polecats which are smaller and less fierce, and pine martens which are more closely related but live, as their name suggests, in trees.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: ranger1
Date: 25 Feb 16 - 08:15 PM

We've got one in the woods out behind the field. I haven't seen it, but landlady's son has. I have seen its tracks and where it caught something just off one of the trails out back. I like them. I may be in the minority, but I find them fascinating. And they are frequently unfairly blamed for missing cats. It's usually coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and great horned owls that take cats. Fishers' main prey is snowshoe hares, but 20% of their diet is porcupine. They used to be brought in to keep down the porcupine populations in areas being harvested for timber. As for population, well, I don't see any decline in here in Maine, if anything, they seem to be more common than when I was kid. Might have something to do with needing standing dead snags of a certain height and diameter to use for den trees. After the ice storm in '98, we've got a lot of dead stuff the right size now, and plenty of porcupines.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: gnu
Date: 26 Feb 16 - 06:09 AM

"Fishers' main prey is snowshoe hares," I did not know that. I guess the reason I wasn't aware of their speed was that I never saw one chasing breakfast.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Greg F.
Date: 26 Feb 16 - 10:08 AM

they are frequently unfairly blamed for missing cats

The people who let their cats run wild are what's responsible for "missing cats".

The coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and great horned owls should be complemented for their work in that regard.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Jun 16 - 03:18 PM

A quick-and-dirty online search of news stories brought up:

The fisher cat on the Pacific coast. Here, there is controversy. US Fish and Wildlife has yet to put the fisher on the endangered-species list, which does not mean they the bureau is not intervening: far from it, they have had breeding programs and have re-introduced fishers to areas from which they had disappeared. This list business seems to be fiercely politicized, as witness the change of mind about the grizzly bear. When asked what the greatest danger was to the Pacific fisher population, there were a number of responses, all of them caused by humans. One is that where fishers survive, there are now coastal highways, and highways away from the coast, which pretty much circle around and close off their habitat; and it has become routine to find fishers amongst the highway roadkill. I won't even start about the illegal cannabis-grower rodenticides.

Meanwhile, on the Long Island Sound, several communities in coastal Connecticut are bothering the Police Animal Control department more than usual: not that the fishers have actually done anything, it's just the screams. The screaming has gotten more frequently reported and is closer to populated areas. It impresses me that we are talking of towns like Guildford which is really near the ocean shore, rather than farther inland. The Police Animal Control Facebook page has gone so far as to post a Facebook video warning that the fishers "are here to stay" and not to let the cat out at night.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Greg F.
Date: 14 Jun 16 - 05:01 PM

Most of what are reported as Fisher "screams" are actually red and grey fox calls. In addition, I the fisher's range doesn't extend into coastal Connecticut.

See Date: 25 Feb 16 - 11:07 AM   above and
http://www.defenders.org/fisher/basic-facts-about-fishers

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: mkebenn
Date: 14 Jun 16 - 06:13 PM

The "cat" threw me. I always knew this animal as fisher, and gnu, I believe marten is the same critter in the U.s. I always thought of them as a streamlined wolverine, a large mink like thing very valuable to balance in the food chain. Cats(domestic) are destructive interlopers that will kill anything, so if weasels, or foxes get a few, bonus. Mike

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Greg F.
Date: 14 Jun 16 - 06:31 PM

Yup, Mike, thy're weasels & nuthin'to do with a cat - for some reason "fisher-cat" is a colloquial name for them in some parts of the U.S. The pine martin is another critter entirely.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_marten

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: mkebenn
Date: 15 Jun 16 - 08:31 AM

Greg, was mistaken about fisher/marten, apparently a smaller cousin. I've always been into weasels in general, because given all the time I've spent outdoors,the only one I've ever seen was in Canada, and it was a mink feasting on night crawlers that we'd carelessly left on to boat house dock overnight. I watched him/her with fascination and didn't begrudge it the meal. Mike

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Greg F.
Date: 15 Jun 16 - 09:42 AM

Check thisout, Mike-

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/science/weasels-are-built-for-the-hunt.html

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 15 Jun 16 - 10:59 AM

Mustelidae are fascinating creatures...

I grew up in a west country family..
My uncle kept ferrets for rabbit hunting..
When I was a boy I 'accidently' unlocked his ferret and rabbit cages....
.. of course I did my best helping out in the pandemonium to round them all up again... 😇



Nowadays ferrets are 'cute' pets even cuter looking young women take for walks round the park on leads...

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: mkebenn
Date: 15 Jun 16 - 12:09 PM

Thank you for the link, Greg. Nice info. The picture of the adult male fisher, tranquilized in a man's arms was an eyeopener, I had no idea they got that large. Mike

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Jun 16 - 09:37 PM

Ferrets as pets are problematic. Not for the faint of heart:
ferret attacks baby

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: mkebenn
Date: 17 Jun 16 - 09:48 PM

Yea, they're cute, and we made pets of cats, but still, weasels? Mike

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 May 17 - 01:15 PM

The fisher beasties are busy in southern New England anyway.

Local press on Martha's Vineyard -- one of the better known islands -- is making much of the recent appearances, one at a time, of dead fishers on local beaches of that island.

There is much disagreement about whether or not the fisher was native; however, having its remains to identify left no doubt that the two dead animals were, indeed, fishers.

One suggestion was that the chain of islands called the Elizabeth Islands could have fishers working their way through the chain, and then a fisher on one of those islands could get somehow caught up in currents or tides, and carried by the ocean to Martha's Vineyard.

One opinion voiced in one of these reports was that fishers favor bird feeders, so as to catch and kill the birds there.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: EBarnacle
Date: 13 May 17 - 11:21 AM

Guest, Dave, the term "polecat" in the US means skunk.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: gnu
Date: 13 May 17 - 02:13 PM

Just saw a fellow Mudcatter's thread on FB. Pics of fisher sh... ahhh, scat... with quills in it. Soooo, if reincarnation is real, the worst thing to come as would be a male fisher. I mean, if you get an enlarged prostate, well, say no more. >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: gnu
Date: 13 May 17 - 02:17 PM

"... come BACK as..."

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: ranger1
Date: 13 May 17 - 08:17 PM

Told you 20% of their diet was porcupine! And now I have the photo to back it up!

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 May 17 - 10:12 PM

Moutain lion.

Red fox.

Elk (wapiti).

Wolf.

Prairie wolf (coyote).

Whitetail deer.

Bison (buffalo).

Pine marten.

Fisher cat.

Beware of playing these around four-legged pets!

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 May 17 - 01:28 PM

Couple of reasons I like the following video.

The inevitable conclusion is G-rated, you don't see the carnage.

It's in broad daylight at close range.

The location is Massachusetts.

It's pretty good for being through the driver's-door window of a motor vehicle.

You can compare the squirrel with the thing chasing it around a tree.

Now for the simple question.
Is the predator a fisher,
or is it something similar but with a different name?

chasing a squirrel 'round a tree

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: ranger1
Date: 14 May 17 - 03:11 PM

I think it is a fisher, but it's a very young one.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: gnu
Date: 14 May 17 - 04:40 PM

Pine Marten.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Greg F.
Date: 14 May 17 - 06:32 PM

Second vote for Pine Martin - and squirrels are their usual prey.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: ranger1
Date: 15 May 17 - 12:41 AM

Massachusetts is too far south for pine marten. Not too far south for fisher. I'm sticking with young fisher.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 May 17 - 03:02 AM

As long as we're thread-creeping on the poor fishers, Least Weasel is beautiful. Think that might come up in a MudSearch too.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Greg F.
Date: 15 May 17 - 10:09 AM

Hmmmm..... what PART of Mass. was this filmed in? There are pine martin in southern NH & VT, so why not NW Mass?

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 May 17 - 10:22 AM

If you looked at the comments below the YouTube video,

you would find it said Carver, Massachusetts.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Greg F.
Date: 15 May 17 - 11:06 AM

WELL EXCUUUSSSE ME!!!

If I'd read thru to the next to the last of 103 inane & sometimes idiotic comments?

So where the hell is Carver, MA??

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 May 17 - 12:25 PM

In Plymouth County, since you ask, not all that far from the "Plimoth Plantation" historic preserve. Not ON Cape Cod, either, but nearby.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jul 19 - 05:28 PM

I played back this video in silence, with the sound completely off.
Because,
I wanted to watch how this conservation-center officer
handled a
somewhat tamed live fisher, indoors, in a classroom.
Don't know what it sounds like.

"Creature Teacher": Meet the Fisher

At almost exactly three minutes - 3:00 --
the fisher comes out of his animal-carrier cage.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jul 19 - 02:29 PM

I worked my way through college for some years working for the USFS: I was in the North Cascades timber cruising and heard a huge racket, noisy feet scrambling over tree bark and scolding and looked up to see a martin in hot pursuit of a squirrel. I didn't see how it ended, but I doubt it went well for the squirrel.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 Jul 19 - 08:16 PM

Fichu means fucked, not hide/pelt.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Charmion
Date: 29 Jul 19 - 11:18 AM

Mrrzy, a "fichu" is a triangular scarf or shawl that covers the back of the neck, the shoulders and the upper bosom, thus leaving to the imagination what one's robe décolletée would reveal.

As a verb, "fichu(e)" is the past participle of the infinitive "ficher", which originally meant "fix" or "fasten", as with a nail. The "fasten" sense led to the scarf through the way it was tucked and pinned in place. The nail-driving sense led to the slang usage.

In Canada, where I speak French, it's not quite as intense as "fucked", more like "bothered". Ça m'en fiche -- that really bugs me.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Jul 19 - 01:18 PM

Fichu is not as vulgar as foutu... Screwed, rather than fucked- you are right.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Jul 19 - 02:17 PM

Well, I can't change the opening post.
As recent posts suggest, there are errors and inaccuracies --
I just plain got it wrong --
in the original post.

Let me, however, attempt amends.

These quotes come from the Wikipedia "fisher" article, which has
numerous primary sources in its footnotes.

"Fishers have had a long history of contact with humans,
but most of it has been to the detriment of fisher populations."

"Fishers have been trapped since the 18th century.
They have been popular with trappers due to the value of their fur,
which has been used for scarves and neck pieces."

"Despite the name 'fisher,' the animal is not known to eat fish.
The name is instead related to the word 'fitch'
meaning a European polecat (Mustela putorius)
or pelt thereof, due to the resemblance to that animal.
The name comes from colonial Dutch equivalent
'fisse' or 'visse.'
In the French language, the pelt of a polecat
is also called 'fiche' or 'fichet.'

Fisher on Wikipedia

The Dutch also referred to said European polecat as a 'Stinkmarter'.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Sep 23 - 01:02 PM

Just read, in the newspaper, an interview with a master chimney sweep.
He was reminiscing about creatures getting stuck, or building nests, in chimneys.
Chimney swifts are protected and he is never to de-nest them.

On the other hand, he says his son, also in the business,
removed a dead fisher cat from a "chimney pathway."
Fisher cats are actually rather large to end up inside a chimney.

Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Sep 23 - 01:02 PM

Just read, in the newspaper, an interview with a master chimney sweep.
He was reminiscing about creatures getting stuck, or building nests, in chimneys.
Chimney swifts are protected and he is never to de-nest them.

On the other hand, he says his son, also in the business,
removed a dead fisher cat from a "chimney pathway."
Fisher cats are actually rather large to end up inside a chimney.