The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #159332   Message #3795674
Posted By: keberoxu
14-Jun-16 - 03:18 PM
Thread Name: BS: a fisher-cat thread
Subject: RE: BS: a fisher-cat thread
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.