Fishers (Pekania pennanti) are a predator species reclaiming much of its former range in the northeastern US, but, as sightings become more common, so do stories of what fishers (AKA fisher cats) are up to. Are they eating young turkeys and housecats? Are they the animal you hear screaming from the woods at night? Why did one study find fisher toes and feet in the stomachs of other fishers?! This episode, the guys are on the trail - both literally and figuratively - tracking down the life history of this elusive member of the weasel family.
This episode was recorded on April 24, 2024 at Hunters Creek County Park in East Aurora, NY.
Episode Notes
Are skunks weasels? The guys debated whether or not skunks are members of the weasel family, with Daniel saying that they were not. Turns out he was correct. The Canadian Encyclopedia states:
Skunks were previously considered as part of the weasel family (Mustelidae) but DNA research has placed them in their own family, Mephitidae.
What do you call a genus that contains only a single species? Bill asked Steve this question, and Steve responded that he thought the term was monotypic. He was right!
Links
This is the video Bill mentioned, showing a fisher moving slowly down a tree
Check out the podcast To Know the Land and their interview with fisher researcher Dr. Scott LaPoint.
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Works Cited
Bowman, Jeff; Donovan, Dennis; & Rosatte, Richard C., Numerical Response of Fishers to Synchronous Prey Dynamics, Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 87, Issue 3, 6 June 2006, Pages 480–484, https://doi.org/10.1644/05-MAMM-A-202R2.1
Gabriel MW, Woods LW, Wengert GM, Stephenson N, Higley JM, et al. (2015) Patterns of Natural and Human-Caused Mortality Factors of a Rare Forest Carnivore, the Fisher (Pekania pennanti) in California. PLOS ONE 10(11): e0140640. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140640
Green, Rebecca E.; Purcell, Kathryn L.; Thompson, Craig M; & Kelt, Douglas A.; Wittmer, Heiko U. Reproductive parameters of the fisher (Pekania pennanti) in the southern Sierra Nevada, California, Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 99, Issue 3, 1 June 2018, Pages 537–553, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyy040
Massachusetts Audubon, Fishers, massaudubon.org, 2024, https://www.massaudubon.org/nature-wildlife/mammals-in-massachusetts/fishers. Accessed April 20, 2024.
McNeil, Darin J., Jr., et al. "Diets of fishers (Pekania pennanti) and evidence of intraspecific consumption in Pennsylvania." The American Midland Naturalist, vol. 177, no. 2, Apr. 2017, pp. 200+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A493636934/AONE?u=nysl_oweb&sid=googleScholar&xid=2c08ba0e. Accessed 13 Apr. 2024.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. New York State Fisher Management Plan 2016-2025, Nov. 2015, extapps.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/nyfishermgmtplan.pdf.
Pauli, Jonathan N. & Pokallus, John W., Predation shapes the movement of a well-defended species, the North American porcupine, even when nutritionally stressed, Behavioral Ecology, Volume 27, Issue 2, March-April 2016, Pages 470–475, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arv176
Pokallus, John W., and Jonathan N. Pauli. “Population Dynamics of a Northern-Adapted Mammal: Disentangling the Influence of Predation and Climate Change.” Ecological Applications, vol. 25, no. 6, 2015, pp. 1546–56. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24700430. Accessed 13 Apr. 2024.
Rathbone, Ellen. “The Fisher: Amazing Adirondack Weasel -.” The Adirondack Almanack, 19 Feb. 2015, www.adirondackalmanack.com/2010/09/the-fisher-amazing-adirondack-weasel.html.
Suffice, P., Cheveau, M., Imbeau, L., Mazerolle, M.J., Asselin, H. and Drapeau, P. (2020), Habitat, Climate, and Fisher and Marten Distributions. Jour. Wild. Mgmt., 84: 277-292. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21795
Zielinski, William J., et al. “Diet of Fishers (Martes Pennanti) at the Southernmost Extent of Their Range.” Journal of Mammalogy, vol. 80, no. 3, 1999, pp. 961–71. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1383266. Accessed 15 Apr. 2024.
Photo Credit
©christine123, some rights reserved (CC-BY) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19475262 - the image was cropped and the brightness increased