Talk:Fisher (animal)/Archive 1

Acton, MA

Someone needs to edit the fisher article. Fishers are definitely killing domestic cats in my neighborhood.

This is no longer speculation. My neighbor *saw* my cat, a large (16 lb), healthy tom, being chased by a fisher. My cat got away uninjured. We have another cat which had a fisher bite (so said our vet) but escaped and survived. And a third which simply disappeared a few weeks ago (tho cause unknown). Many neighbors have lost cats recently. Do we have to have a PhD in zoology to be a sufficient authority to change the article? Is there not fire where there is smoke?

Oh, I called the local animal control officer who said (a) they don't do anything about wild animals which aren't sick and (b) this is due precisely to the relatively recent anti-trapping law here in Massachusetts.

PDP-Anonymous —Preceding unsigned comment added by PDP-Anonymous (talk • contribs) 22:48, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Georgetown MA

I saw a fisher running through the woods and into the road, disappearing very quickly into the brush. According to the size description of this article is was as big as they get. The presence of a Fisher would explain a mutilated cat that was found nearby. The Fisher I saw was running very fast and across snowy terrain with ease. 2/16/07

Marlborough Massachusetts

In Marlborough Massachusetts, I have seen a Fisher twice in my back yard. Once, late afternoon, in a tree -- the crows were going crazy-- no wonder I have been finding crow feathers around the house lately. When I saw it climbing down the tree I thought it was a black house cat, but it was almost twice as long. They look like otters or ferrets.

The second time I spotted it was around dusk. I was standing very still with the wind blowing away. It came within 12 feet of me, slinking through the yard cautiously, dispearing under some trees with a high canopy.

I live in an urban area with patches of tall trees, a near by forests, and plenty of critters, both domestic and wild.

???

dram strokers fisher???

some person told me that fishers feed on animal blood, is that true?

Well of course they do, but not like vampire bats or Count Dracula. They are known to be somewhat ferocious, and make a lot of noise, which could lead to someone believing they are like the tasmanian devil. They feed on smaller animals and make a racket and a mess when killing them. But they aren't some sort of bloodthirsty freaks. Your jackass friend is somewhat correct because blood is part of any carnivore's intake. But fishers aren't bloodthirsty or do it for pleasure.

They eat blood unwittingly like most carnivores by eating meat, but they don't eat it like, say, a vampire bat or a mosquito.61.230.72.211 02:59, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

ON my back porch

Could I have seen one on my back porch persuing the cat? It was too big to be a cat. It was dusk. Wish I had my night vison camera. It left when I came out.

found in florida

I live in Central Florida and in my community they have currently discovered a family of Fisher cats around one of our dumpsters. They had been killing some of the animals around here including a couple cats that use to belong to a nieghbor. I was wondering if these things are viscious enough to attack a human if it felt threatened or scared.

Nope. One scientist trapped sveral fishers, then he went about touching their noses, but not one bit him!61.230.72.211 02:59, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and please refrain from calling them fisher "cats". They're no cats at all, they're way cooler. Just kidding, that's a POV. They're actually related to weasels.211.72.108.3 03:01, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

yo what up homie.word to your mother. what the heck was someone thinking by writing a word that children can't say.

No actually they have attacked humans. Here's a link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGs0J2DBsx4 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.70.122.117 (talk) 01:35, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

And your point is...? 61.230.78.158 09:21, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

SPOTTED IN CONNECTICUT

Small group of us- dog walkers- spotted a Fisher today, September 13, 2006 perched in what appeared to be a former squirrel's nest in a pine tree in Manchester, CT.

The chickens are gone and one walked right by us September 7th 2006

A couple of years ago I was awoken by the most blood curling screams . Having 3 small children I jumped up out of a sound sleep and realized the sound was coming out of my bedroom window on a warm July night. When I looked out I saw what I thought was a fox killing my chicken. I scared it away and went out and buried the chicken. I never knew that it was a fisher cat that night till recently. We were sitting on the front porch quietly at midnight star gazing when what I thought was a medium size dog with a bushy tail walked out the side of my yard to the mailbox then started running right at us dissappeared completely behind a oak tree in our front yard. I had a spot light next to me and as it was running towards us I turned it on and then realized "That's no Dog". My friend grabbed my daughter and headed towards the inside while I shined the light into and around the tree. I was shocked at what i saw perched acrossed the limb kind of just lounging there. I know seeing one is rare but we definately did. I personally think the need to research alittle more because the fisher cat we saw here in Bradford Rhode Island weighed more than 30lbs and looked like he was the size of a Chocolate Lab cut off at the knees with a huge beautiful bushy tail. We know he is eating well cause all winter last yeaar he made tracks in the snow around our house . We have even found tracks all through the sand piles in our yard. I have one question if someone could answer please... Has one ever attacked a small child? I have two children under the age of 3 and even though we keep them close to us in the yard if hungry would they attack?

NO! And stop calling them fisher cats! They're not cats! But they might attack pets though. Dora Nichov 14:03, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes. here's a link. It attacked a kid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGs0J2DBsx4 Yes they are called Fisher Cats, theyve been called that for a long time. Just because a bearcat is called a bear cat does not mean it's a bear or a cat. You think you know it all.

I live in RI and fishers have become quite common there. We have spotted them multiple times just this past year around my house...strange for an animal that often keeps out of sight. Several cats have gone missing in the area, and ours was no exception. Never before this past year did we ever see this fisher and I really never even heard of it until recently, but it will definitely snatch up cats, chickens, and small dogs with ease.

That's true. Dora Nichov 08:07, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

does anybody edit these Wikipedia articles???

What's up with "up your butt" in the following sentence on the Fishers page...

"The fisher is found from the Sierra Nevadas in California to the Appalachians in West Virginia up your butt and north to New England (where it is often called a fisher cat), as well as in southern Alaska and across most of Canada."

Makes no sense to me!!!

71.74.30.148 23:22, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism. Remove it. *Yawn*. Dora Nichov 07:10, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Raynham, MA

Saw a fisher running across Rte. 138 near a river. Thought it was an otter at first. It was pretty large, all black —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.19.164.222 (talk) 13:40, 27 February 2007 (UTC).

Fisher filmed in Coventry, CT

Today I was walking in a very wooded area and right at the end of the trail where my car was parked my Jack Russell Terriers chased a Fisher up a tree. I did not know what it was so I did not want to disturb it too much for fear that what ever it was may fall out of the tree, so I called my two puppies back, and got in the car. While driving back to my house, which was 1 minute away, I decided to get my camcorder and go back, of course I didn't take the dogs. So, while entering back in the woods there it was carrying an animal in it's mouth and ran up a tree that went up about 20 feet high and bent horizontally where he stopped and started munching on it's capture. I filmed about 10 minutes of this thing crunching on an animal. I tried to get closer and closer and he didn't really care to much about me, just kept looking at me every so often while I was filming and he was eating. I figured out that the prey he caught was a red tailed hawk when he swung it around and the red tail flopped in front of me. Still, I wasn't sure what it was cause I never really seen one, but to my surprise after getting on the internet, I found out what it was. He was the bushiest and cuttiest little thing and the only reason I think I was able to film him cause he didn't want to leave his catch. That also brought up the question, how did he catch a Hawk?Cchiker 02:18, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, they're good hunters... Dora Nichov 10:49, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Wausau, WI

4/15/07 - We saw a fisher go through the woods in Wausau, WI, too. It was last fall (fall 2006). With small kids, we are a bit scared of letting them play outside without us. Thanks for posting your sitings. If anyone knows what to do if you see a fisher, please advise. Thank you. —The preceding Deeds comment was added by 12.40.86.110 (talk) 02:04, 16 April 2007 (UTC).

Nothing really. They don't harm humans. Just sit and admire the beautiful animal.

article disputes animal's cries

"Mick Valent, the principal zoologist for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife... said he also had never heard of the scream. “There are a lot of animals that vocalize,” he said. “Foxes, coyotes make a lot of noise.”

seems to be a need to verify the sounds these animals make. Could be folklore.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/nyregion/04cat.html

64.244.253.90 17:23, 6 July 2007 (UTC) it's not folklore..they sound evil. one in my yard looking for my dog mark payne-coventry ri —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.9.106.171 (talk) 00:31, August 23, 2007 (UTC)

Fisher Photo Gallery Error

Dear Wikipedia Folks - There are three pictures in the photo gallery below the article on Fishers. One of the pictures, file name "kunawodna.jpg", is a picture of a mink - NOT a fisher! Please correct the error. Thanks 64.222.32.77 15:17, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

inccorect conversion and confusing size info

In the discription section it says "Adults weigh between 2 and 7 kg (12-25 lbs) ..." that conversion isnt even close, 2kg is about 4.4 lb and 7 is close to 15. Without knowing which is correct I am hesitant to try to fix it. The weights mentioned furter on in the section are correctly convereted but don't seem to match up with the range at all, "...and males at as much as 9 kg (20 lbs)." --71.112.123.212 (talk) 22:35, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

An anonymous user changed the imperial weights from 4-15 to 12-25 back in January [1]. I'm treating it as old vandalism. -- Cyrius|✎ 02:38, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Etymology

As the origin of the name "fisher" is unsourced, I suspect it is wrong, and the actual origin is the West Country term Fitcher, meaning a ferret or polecat. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.74.125.205 (talk) 19:43, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

The dutch version of this page says the opposite of what the english one says: it says dutch "fish marten" (vismarter) comes from the french term of polecat skin (fitchet), where the english version says it comes from "vies" (dirty, disgusting) which got corrupted into "vis" (fish). The french page is silent on this. Supporting the english version is that the english page mentions "fitch" as a (regional?) synonym to polecat, where the further term "foulmart" clearly refers to it being a stinky mustelid. Dutch idiom says "stinken als een bunzing" (to stink like a polecat). No mention of polecat skins being called anything in the french page. All in all this is not definite enough evidence to rewrite the english or dutch version either direction to make them compatible. 144.173.5.197 (talk) 16:01, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

The fitch(er) --> fisher you posit would then be not the correct derivation, with instead dutch-origin new englanders causing the vies (foul in dutch) --> vis (fish in dutch) derivation of the name, while possibly also vies (foul in dutch) --> fitch (west country). As I said, the dutch, french and english articles do not support each other so editing either direction would be unsupported without further evidence. 144.173.5.197 (talk) 16:08, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Anonymous Exeter user, thanks for your input, and I hope my merging of the two sections maintained the proper sequence and intent of your input. Eric ^talk 19:34, 19 November 2009 (UTC)