Fishers and cougars and porcupines , oh my!

Yes, we in the county have head a steadily increasing population of two of these nasty animals. When Kev and I moved here this neighbourhood was overrun with feral cats. Although considered a problem for the county, for the farmers they did help keep the rodent population down. However, the increasing fisher population has decimated the feral cat population (and we're seeing less rabbits as well) and the rodents are having a party. Either the fishers don't appreciate mice, or the mice are leaving the forest and moving on to our lawns to be safe. So indirectly, it was this animal that has required us to adopt two mousers.

I've seen 3 fishers since moving here. One slipping across the road near midnight as I was driving home from a meeting ... I thought it was a wolverine since I'd never heard of fishers before, and the shadows made it look larger than it was. The little round ears are so different. Then once out walking the dog, I saw two in a neighbour's field early in the morning. The creepy thing about them? When we got close enough to startle them, rather than slipping away as would any reasonable wild animal, both (in different areas of the field) sat up and looked more closely at us, then started coming our way! We left. Quickly. If a barking 72 pound border collie isn't enough to scare them, nothing is. Last week a fisher made it into the local news after attacking two small pet dogs, and then the owner when she tried to rescue the dogs. She was cut up quite badly. And in the last couple of weeks, New Life Girls' Home had to have the MNR come out and live trap two fishers.

One postive about fishers in the county? Because of the way they prey on animals, they are the only known predators of porcupines. I'll spare the gory details. The county doesn't have porcupines (save the for the road kill one that several years ago was "planted" on a county road to play a joke on council and Quinte conservation), but they will now likely never gain a foothold here.

This excerpt is from www.borealforest.com

Martes pennanti
Fisher

Description

Distinguishing Features - Overall colouration, thick, lustrous fur, varying from dark brown to black; random whitish to cream coloured patches on chest. In winter, colouration tends to be darker. Legs, short; claws, semi-retractable.

Size -
Male: .84 - 1.05 m (2.8 - 3.5 ft)
Female: .75 - .93 m (2.5 - 3.1 ft)

Habitat

Throughout Northwestern Ontario, preferring mature coniferous forests with heavy overhead canopy near water; stays clear of open areas.

Diet

Primarily a carnivore. The fisher is one of the few animals that will kill a porcupine. It will also eat anything else it can overwhelm; rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, insects, reptiles, fish, crayfish and carrion; some berries, seeds and tips of ferns.

Notes

The fisher is a wide-ranging, year round hunter, preferring to venture out at night. Because it has few natural enemies, the fisher population has remained stable. A female will produce one litter of 2 - 3 offspring a year.

*****

And if fishers aren't bad enough, in the last few weeks, there have been two cougar sightings at far-flung ends of the county. One near East Lake and one up at Rednersville Road. Rampant rumour is that the cougars have been released by the MNR to control fishers. However, this indeed is just a rumour; cougars likely predate humans in this area. In fact, local Loyalist historical fiction and oral history are rife with accounts of cougar attacks. So it could very well be that our hidden population is escalating.