Fishers and their vocalizations

“About Fishers.” Massachusetts Audubon Society, 10 Nov. 2019, https://www.massaudubon.org/learn/nature-wildlife/mammals/fishers/about.

Drew was walking down Starbird Corner Rd. early this morning (around 4:45am) and heard the scream of a fisher. One must be in the right place, at the right time, to hear these vocalizations as fishers are generally nocturnal. I have done a lot of research and nobody has photographed a fisher actually screaming with that higher pitch. I have just read of anecdotal evidence.

Here is a an interesting video from a Cape Cod rehabilitation center about their fisher rehab. 

Fisher tracks in snow on the ice of No Name beaver bog back in our woods in February 2010 - mixed forest

All I have been able to capture are photographs of the footprints of a fisher in the snow while walking on the ice of a beaver bog back in the woods behind our house. Did you know that fishers are members of the weasel family? Well, they are. Weasels are all ferocious omnivores for their size. In fact, they are one of the few predators that can take down porcupines! Here is a link to a great article on fishers by the Northern Woodlands magazine. They also eat berries and fruit besides small mammals and amphibians.

Compare it to a red fox barking vocalization. This vocalization is recorded from the MacCaulay Library within the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Red fox vocalizations are a bit shorter/choppier than those of fishers.