Thursday, January 14, 2010

The vicious, ferocious fisher-cat!

Dan writes:

The fisher-cat is a terrible beast, with huge fangs and a blood-curdling
scream. But they're still pretty darn cute.

7 comments:

  1. Another stunner, Dan. It's remarkable how you managed to get him to smile for the camera.

    Do you think you could ask him to stand on a scale for you? I'm still hearing rumors of mega-fishers weighing in a 50 pounds and taking down adult bucks.

    And my sister-in-law's cousin's best friend's aunt's hairdresser's husband's drinking buddy saw a fisher drag a llama over a 10 foot fence, then 100 feet up a huge oak tree before biting its head off and dropping it to the ground.

    Amazing. Yet their track sizes are still about 2 inches in width, just like those dinky 6 pounders use to have.

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  2. Estimating the size of a glimpsed animal is a tricky thing. We've had two credible coyote sightings in the neighborhood this month (credible since one of them was by me!). My neighbor pulled into her driveway and saw what her daughter described as a wolf, and what she described as a silver coyote larger than my 60 lb golden retriever. When I went out and tracked what I was sure was an adult coyote when I watched it walk through our yard, I found smaller tracks and a stride just larger than my snow boot. I came back wondering if I'd mis-identified a grey fox as a coyote. I still believe it was a [juvenile?] coyote, but maybe there are 60 lb grey fox out there with the megafisher, too!

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  3. I don't know about 60 lb grey fox, but there are some big coyotes around here, to be sure. Saw some large tracks, very large strides, in nice, regular side trots and overstep trots at Oxbow last weekend. Could have been big, business-like dogs, who disregarded the "no dogs allowed" sign, but they appeared to be on a mission, with straight, unvarying trail, and moving away from people trail and not returning.

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  4. Looks to be a sub-adult male... Cool green eyecast in shot.

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  5. How can you tell it's a subadult male?

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  6. The sexual dimorphism in Fisher can be pronounced; males exhibit a prominent saggital crest which gives them an almost bear-like head. They exhibit more grizzled, hoary facial fur.

    Females appear far more sleek & streamlined, evolved to more easily enter tree cavities for natal dens. Their coats,while variable are often darker & more prized by the fur market.

    This guy appears to be young, not a kit, nor adult-- teddy bear look to him lol

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