The Fisher Cat has a typical, weasel-anatomy shape with a long, slender body, short legs and a fuzzy tail. It also has a long, pointed face with large, rounded ears set close to the head. It is well-adapted for climbing with sharp retractable claws similar to that of a domestic cat. Its coloration is generally a rich brown to black with grizzled graying on the head and shoulders. Females may have large, white patches on their chests and lower abdomen left over from late-winter blizzards.
As in my illustration, the young are born one to three months after implantation, and females produce only one litter per year of three kits at a time, as shown in my drawing. After several months, they are moved from the maternity den to a larger cavity located high up in a hollow, large tree. Then, after several more months, they are actually transferred to a nest in the ground, as the kits are shielded from that time on until they can fend for themselves.
Problems with fishers may sometimes arise but usually restricted to predatory attacks on domestic birds, rabbits and free-ranging house cats. If you want to make your property less attractive to fishers and avoid their problems, keep your feeders clean, as seed feeders attract many small animals like squirrels that fishers prey on. Remove that exposed garbage, compost and pet food that attract fishers and don’t hesitate to apply water sprayed from a hose with loud noises to frighten them away.
Be sure to protect your pets and poultry because they view domestic cats and rabbits as food. Poultry, especially, should be kept inside, because their smaller cousin, the weasel, is famous for sucking all that blood to kill every chicken they can locate. The fisher’s larger relative, the Michigan Wolverine, is even more aggressive and blood thirsty than any other members of the fisher family.
Fisher cats can be remarkably humanistic at times in protecting their kits like loving parents until they can fend for themselves.
This article may seem like a tall tale and the illustration may look like an imaginary, backyard character beyond scientific logic, unlike any other imaginative behavior you may find realistic as well as believable relative to this story about the ornery Fisher Cat.
By George B. Emmons
