Conference misery::feline

    I only know one in Paris whom a small street is named after. Never
    heard about it anywhere else.
    
    Nat

    A fisher cat is a wild cat who is known to hunt and kill alot
    of domestic kitties.   They are a big danger to our feline friends
    because they have all the capabilities (ie..climb trees, is very
    fast, fit's in tight spots, stronger teeth) then our domestic kitties.
    
    I never saw a fisher cat...but I have seen pictures and if I remember
    correctly they do have many features of a normal cat, but are bigger.
    They also have a wilder look to them...kind of reminds me of a 
    combination of a cat/raccoon/beaver!!!
    
    Last summer our local newspaper had stated that a fisher cat was spoted 
    in the Fitchburg area and that was the same area many cats had 
    disappeared. (sigh)
    
    Sandy

    Isn't it part of the weasel family?  I seem to recall it isn't a feline
    at all, and it's real name is just "Fisher".  I saw one stuffed at the
    Spencer County Fair.  Nasty looking animal, sort of fox-feline look to
    it. 
    Sarah 

    
    Sarah's right; the animal, which I believe is related to the badger, is
    not a feline at all.  They have a reputation for being quite ferocious.
    I think they look a bit like a wolverine.  I can get more information
    tonight.
    
    BTW, there is a *Fishing* cat, a small cat which dives for fish.  More
    information on this exotic (but true) feline) tomorrow.
    
    len.
      

    I will also back up that a Fischer is not a cat.  It is in the
    weasel,badger type family.  There are many of them in Maine.  It is an
    animal that, I believe, generally lives in the woods. Yes, it is known
    to  be ferocious.  I had heard of someone many years ago that owned one
    as a pet.  You know, raised from a kit.  Very moody.  Raccoons are the
    same way.  I wouldn't go near one with a ten foot pole!  I've watched
    them eat and get a hold of something they don't want you to have.
    Karen

    But, weasels and stoats are very small (squirrel-sized
    or even smaller) with long, slender bodies.  Wolverines 
    are big, can get up to about 50-60 lbs, and have a stockier 
    build, similar to a raccoon.  They are all ferocious killers.
    
    Fishers, a friend tells me, like porcupine.  They will attack
    quickly, before it rolls up, going for its face, then when
    the procupine is all confused, the fisher goes for its belly.
                        
    Sue 

    
    Fishers are big.
    
    len.
    

    The one I saw was about 35-40 pounds, about the size of a beagle (dog),
    but longer.  When I live on the coast of Maine for a summer, we were
    warned by the local cops not to let our cat out at night because there
    were fishers in the marsh woods that have been known to eat cats : (
    Sarah

    When I lived in Athol our neighbors had a fisher cat take up 
    residence under their shed which borders the woods.  Our cat
    Peaches disappeared as well as 3 or 4 other cats that lived 
    in the house down the road.
    
    I never did see it for myself, but according to our neighbor it
    looked like a big weasel and moved FAST.
    
    With all of the wild critters we've seen in my parents yard over
    the years (bobcat, fox, coy dog, fisher cat) we all have indoor
    only cats now.
    
    Sharon

    When I bought my house in the rural part of town, my neighbor, rest his
    soul now, used to hunt them.  He said back in the earlier part of the
    century the town had a bounty on them as they were so vicious and would
    kill all kinds of small livestock.  So, when he was young, he could
    pick up $30 a head for them.  There are still a few left in the area,
    but now that there are so many houses going up, I dont hear them any
    more.  He used to tell me about how they attacked his chickens, small
    lambs, etc.  He told me to listen at night when I first moved there,
    and I would hear the unmistakable scream.  Well, I did hear it!  I
    won't forget the first time I heard it...sounded like a woman being
    attacked.  It woke me right up and I bolted to the window, only to
    realize it had a rythym and sound to it that could only be a fisher.
    In fact, the next morning my neighbor asked if I heard it....
    They are a weasel family member, not a cat.

    Interesting!!  We heard a scream one night that sounded like a woman.
    My father and our doberman (who was afraid of her own shadow) went 
    down into the woods to see who had made the noise.  Shortly after that 
    we saw the bobcat and figured that it was the bobcat we heard.   
    
    Hmmm...  I wonder now if it could've been the fisher cat?  They were 
    around in the same timeframe.
    

    Well, sorry for my first reply here, as I joked about the thing... I
    actually thought of the small diving kitty Len told about. I know this
    animal you mentioned, I never knew you over there call it fishercat -
    it has nothing to do with cats.
    
    BTW, weasels have nothing to do with rodents (note .3) - except eating
    them :^)
    
    Hope all cats are safe from this fishercat over there. We do not have
    this animal in HUngary - only in the Zoo. Not a very, erm, hm, kind,
    erm, person.
    
    Nat

	Rat-hole-alert,
	Read somewhere, while I was camping in Baxter State Park in Maine, that
(contrary to VERY popular belief and a lot of "eye-witnesses") they do not kill
cats.
	While hiking up there, I just missed seeing one. The 2 people hiking
with me saw it. Fast little sucka.
                                                   Dan

    
    I looked up fishers this morning.  They are often called "fisher
    martens" (no reference to fisher cats); they are mustelids, most
    closely related to martens.  They look bigger than they are (big 
    thick coats), weigh up to 15-20 pounds.  They are arborial (i.e.,
    live in trees), but hunt on the ground.  They are very successful
    predators, also very secretive, rarely seen.  Given this, I doubt they
    prey on cats.  From the picture, they have a head much like an otter
    (and apparently, are often confused with otters), but stockier.
    
    len.
     

    re >>Tree Otter Weasel Thing
    
    That explains everything!!
    
    Sue ;-)

    Last year I was up in Lakeville Maine, close to the Canadian Border. 
    We went to a restaurant called the Log Cabin and they had a stuffed
    Fisher Cat on one of the posts over our table.
    
    I asked to be moved.  It looked about 40 lbs.  And, it spooked the heck
    out of me.
    
    FWIW,
    cj

My neighbor told me she saw one.  I don't like the idea of them coming so close
to the houses. But they have chickens.  Something got a few of them last week.

I also know they're around in Barre, MA.

I think I'd prefer not to run into one.........

Diane

    RE: somthing getting the chickens.
    
    It could also have been something like a snow owl or a hawk. The hunter
    birds are beeing seen more in residential areas as woodland and food
    supply dry up. 
    
    Deb

    Or a fox.  I know we have some in Douglas...I've seen 'em.
    
    Sue

    
    I read some more on fishers last night.  Big males get as large as 20
    pounds.  Females are much smaller.  Full grown males are about 2 feet lon
    excluding their tail.
     
    They are reputed to be the fastest animal in the trees - they can easily
    catch squirrels.  They nest on the ground, though, in hollow logs and such.
    According to the distribution map, they are relatively rare in almost all
    of Connecticut, eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.  This
    means they're typically found in western Massachusetts, Vermont,
    northern New Hampshire, and Maine. 
    
    They are known for preying on porcupines, an ecological niche if I ever
    saw one...
    
    len.
    

    Len, just not quite sure what you mean with ecological niche... Do you
    mean that porcupines are rare? Sorry bothering you all, but one always
    uses every occasion to improve his English - and I need it...
    
    Nat :^)
    
    PS. We have bunches of porcupines here, if it is the same or the like
    animal as hedgehogs. We have two kind of thorny animals here (only
    slightly differing form each other) and my dict says hedgehog to the
    one and porcupine to the other. Every year I sight dozens of them, on
    our summer boathouse's yard there lives a thorny pair with youngs each
    year, we feed them and they let themselves even touch. (VERY carefully
    we do this...)

    
    Not that porcupines are rare, but rather that they have very few
    predators, and an animal (like the fisher) that targets them
    specifically is therefore somewhat unique ecologically.  Strictly
    speaking, the usage was inappropriate, for two reasons - first (and
    primarily), fishers prey on other things besides porcupines, and were
    porcupines to suddenly disappear, fishers would probably still get on
    quite nicely.  Second, porcupines are pretty well established, so even if
    fishers were dependent on porcupines, there's little threat to fishers'
    food supply suddenly vanishing.
    
    len.
    

    Thanks, Len.
    
    I have heard (and in a film also seen) how our foxes hunt and eat
    porcupines: they roll them like a ball to some water pool, and then as
    the porcupine has to unroll itself, it shall be eaten then.
    
    Nat

    Did anyone see the article in yesterday's Boston Globe regarding
    the return of fishers to Massachusetts.  The Division of Fisheries
    and Wildlife estimate that there are probably as many here now as
    when the Pilgrims landed.  
    
    It describes them as a "yard-long, busy-tailed cousin of the sable
    and martin, with cat-like habits".  It says in this area their
    diets would consist of gray squirrels, raccoons, berries, fruits 
    and even grasshoppers.  Porcupines make up the diet of those fishers
    found in northern forests.  Dens are up in trees, 20 feet up and the 
    kits make mewing sounds like kittens.  Full grown they weigh 7-15
    lbs and this study is tracking them with microchip tags attached
    to the back of their necks. 
    
    ..just bits and pieces from the article for those who didn't see
    it.
    
    Sue

    where did they say the general location of these fisher's are?
    

    Large wooded areas/forests throughout Massachusetts
    if I recall correctly, but I tossed the article a week
    ago.
    
    I was left with the impression that they are not all that rare.
    
    Sue

    Well, I saw one!!
    
    Sunday, 11:30 am, on Quaker St, coming into Upton from Northbridge.
    It crossed the road app. 30 ft in front of my car!!!  In broad
    daylight!!
    
    It was BIG, long, low (the whole length of his body & tail appeared
    to practically drag on the ground!) and weighed about 20 lbs.  It had
    a long, bushy tail.
    
    I was amazed!!!
    
    Sue