During the winter months, hollow trees, stumps, holes in the ground, brush piles, and other organic matter can serve as temporary housing for these creatures as they are out looking for food.įisher cats are also known to be very territorial and will defend their territory against other cats. You could see fisher cats running up and down the trunks of trees. What do you do if you see a fisher cat?.And their nighttime calls have probably been startling people as long as there have been people and foxes. They are found all over Maryland, and across a large part of the northern hemisphere. Red foxes on the other hand are very vocal. However, in my experiences they generally aren’t that vocal.” Serfast was unable to listen to the recording, but he said, “There certainly are fishers in western Maryland, and eastward from there to a certain extent. I also heard from Frostburg State University (Frostburg, Maryland) professor Thomas L. I am not aware of any fisher being taken during the trapping season in our central Maryland counties.” There is a mandatory pelt tagging requirement for both fisher and otter that are trapped during the regulated trapping season. It’s my understanding fisher are found primarily in our western Maryland Counties, however it’s possible that as the population expands, fisher may move eastward in Maryland into suitable habitat. His answer: “To my knowledge fisher have not expanded their range to this part of Maryland. One point of evidence pointing away from fisher for the sound Judith heard is that fisher are only found in North America, and the second Macaulay Library of Sounds recording above, which sounds very much like the recording, was made in the Netherlands, and therefore couldn’t have been a fisher.Īs to whether there are fisher in central Maryland, I asked Ken D’Loughy, Central Region Manager of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Wildlife and Heritage Service that question. Kays says fisher are actually relatively quiet, so my guess is that many of those recordings are of foxes or other animals. There are a number of recordings claiming to be fisher cats on the web, but Dr. He has one of the largest collections of North American mammal vocalizations, but he is always looking for more, so he encourages anyone who has a recording of a North American mammal to send him an email: Information: The fisher ( Martes pennanti), also known as a fisher cat, is not a cat, but a large member of the weasel family, closely related to, and in the same genus as, the marten ( Martes americana). He is also soon to release a phone app that will make it easier to identify North American mammals by their vocalizations. Kays is the author of Mammals of North America. The identity of the noise maker was confirmed by Roland Kays, Curator of Mammals at the New York State Museum in Albany, NY. Several people, including Steven Mickletz, Naturalist & Manager of Public Programs at the Irvine Nature Center in Owings Mills, MD and Sandy Buterbaugh, Park Superintendent at Piney Run Park in Sykesville, MD, suggested that the sound you heard was a red fox. There is also this youtube video, where someone photographed the fox calling: (if you get a “Could not find specimen.” error, hit refresh) Compare it to these from the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library of Sounds: Despite the labeling, the recording at is undoubtedly a red fox ( Vulpes vulpes), so if that sounds like what you heard, then what you heard was a fox, not a fisher. The Short Answer: If you read the comments for the recording featured at, you’ll notice that most of comments say something to the effect of “This isn’t a fisher, it’s a red fox!” After consulting with several experts, I feel confident that those detractors are correct. This site, has a sound like what I heard: The woods, about 600 acres, are mixed hardwoods, but there are also some scattered stands of pine. It was loud enough that it woke me and a number of my neighbors from a very deep sleep. It sounds sort of like a cat ending in a bird (crow) sound. The Question: For the last several nights I have heard a very loud sound in the woods behind my house.
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