Karen , you do n’t cite where you know , but it must be in Canada or the northerly United States because that ’s where most fisherman live . Pockets of fishers occur as far south as the Virginia , but for the most part , they ’re a mintage found in Canada and the northerneastern United States , though habitats are being reinstate throughout the upper Midwest and westerly states .
Martes pennanti are long , downcast - slung , sinewy members of the weasel family . They ’re called fishers not because they rust fish but because 18th - century French - Canadian pelt traders call themficheorfichet , the French dustup for Mustela putorius , an Old World animal that they resemble . Other names for fisher include pekan , pequam and wejack . Some people call them fishercats .
In 1794 , a human constitute Samuel Williams wrote about pekan in his Bible , The Natural and Civil chronicle of Vermont . He called them “ fierce and ravenous [ animals ] of great activity and strength . ” That pretty well key out fishers .
pekan are fleet , nimble , pugnacious and very substantial for their size . An medium male fisher cat weighs 8 to 12 pounds and is 36 to 48 inches from his nose to the tip of his long , shaggy tail . Female fishers are 20 to 30 pct smaller than males . They have long , slender bodies and short legs , large paws to help them walk on top of Charles Percy Snow , penetrative black center , and belittled , rounded ears . During the wintertime both sexes are dark brownish to virtually black in people of colour , evanesce to mottled Robert Brown in the summertime . Their soft , plush winter fur were consider prize furs during the era of the Canadian and American pelt trade and were used to make fancy collars for robust people ’s coat . Fisher pelts were so valuable that trappers trapped fishers to defunctness in most of their southern kitchen range .
Fishers eat meat , though they also nibble wild fruit and screwball . In many role of their reach , they prefer the flesh of snowshoe hares , coney and porcupines . In fact , the fisher is one of few brute that dine on porcupine , so they ’ve been reintroduced in some places to control hedgehog population that are damage forest crops .
Fishers will , however , corrode any sort of little mammalian , including mouse , moles , voles , termagant , squirrels , muskrats and Marmota monax . As fisher population increase and woodland use disappears , fishers move nearer to human habitation , where they also dine onpoultryand occasionally , catsand little frank .
Game laws protect Martes pennanti in most land , so control them can be tricky . Discourage fisher cat by dispatch food sources . Keep small pets indoors , especially at dusk , overnight and at dawn , when fishers are most active . Build really securechicken coopsand keep chicken , ducks and geese indoors during fisher depredation hr , as well . Do n’t encourage squirrel to pose up encampment in your yard ; fishers consider them prime eating . And do n’t leave out those toothsome mice . You might have to stop feed waste birds because overleap seed pull shiner and a legion of other little gnawer . covering yourcompost heapand do n’t leave windfall fruit or Berry lying on the ground . Feed cats and dogs indoors , or if you must feed them outdoors , nibble up food left uneaten and store feed in rodent - proof metal garbage cans .
Your good bet , however , is to contact your state game mission or your local brute restraint office to see if they ’ll hold out trap and hit marauding fishers . If that is n’t an option and there ’s a fisher time of year in your land , perhaps you could immobilize or scud pesky fisher cat yourself .
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