Police: Boy, 6, Bitten By Fisher Cat

thebostonchannel ^ | June 23, 2009

[JoeProBono]

HOPKINTON, R.I. -- Rhode Island police said a 6-year-old boy walking to the bus stop with his mother was bitten by a fisher cat, a close relative of the weasel.

Hopkinton police said the mother saw the animal Monday morning and initially thought it was a cat or a fox.

She told police that the 20- to 25-pound animal attacked her son when the group began walking away. She said she kicked the fisher cat off the boy and another child threw a backpack at the animal when it appeared ready to strike again. The animal then attacked the backpack.

The group ran to safety, and a neighbor kicked the animal and chased it across the street.

Police said the boy was taken to Westerly Hospital with bite marks on his leg. Authorities could not find the animal.

[JoeProBono]

The fisher, also known as the "pekan cat", "fisher cat", or "black cat", is a large, dark, long-haired member of the weasel family. Fisher usually use two types of shelters. Fisher dens used for giving birth to their young typically are found in large trees, high off the ground. They make use of natural cavities frequently found in older trees. They also use cavities in rocky areas. Dens for general cover and protection consist of hollow logs, turned over stumps, brush piles, or ground burrows.

DESCRIPTION Adult males weigh from 7 to 12 pounds and may be 40 inches long, including their 13 to 15 inch tail. Adult females are smaller, weighing from 4 to 5.5 pounds. Extremely large male fisher may approach 20 pounds, but that is very unusual. They have short legs, small ears, and a long well-furred tail. Their color varies from dark brown to nearly black. Fisher fur is long and luxuriant. The males often have a "grizzled" appearance due to the many tri-colored hairs along their neck and shoulders. Fisher have large feet with five sharp toes. This makes them well adapted for walking on snow, climbing trees, and killing their prey.

RANGE Fishers live in a band of forested habitat extending across North America. They do not occur on any other continent. In the east, they are found from Virginia north to Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Male territories are larger than female territories and the sizes of these regularly patrolled areas vary according to the availability of prey species. A 10 square mile territory is typical for a female fisher and males commonly hunt a 30 square mile area. Circuits are irregularly patrolled although fishers travel pretty much in a straight line when they have determined to go to a certain location. Males usually pass through a given area in their territory about once every two weeks. Female circuits in winter usually vary from 3 days to a week.

[MSF BU]

Time for a rabies shot!

[livius]

Tha’s a scary-looking thing!

[RegulatorCountry]

Rabid. Not normal behavior at all.

[willgolfforfood]

Those things are rumored to fight W-A-Y above their weight class. Like a 70 or 80 pound Doberman or German Shepard will get all they want AND THEN SOME if they get tangled up with one of these things.

I'm thinking 12 gauge, but I can understand that you don't often walk around in RI with a 12 gauge in hand.

[calex59]

AND, they are adept at killing porcupines. They will go under a branch that a porcupine is on and cut their throats, thus avoiding the the quills. This one probably has rabies if it attacked the kid and then the back pack.

[billygoatgruff]

It looks like that critter could give Cujo a run for his money!!

Yikes!

[Dysart]

Ban them!

[frithguild]

Pint size Woverine without the stripes.

[DieHard the Hunter]

‘Strewth! You Yanks have some fugly critters!

[Cyber Liberty]

(Sorry, it was low-hanging fruit)

[raccoonradio]

NH minor league baseball team (Blue Jays affiliate). Their mascot looks a bit more cuddly than what's on their logo.

[JoeProBono]

[I Buried My Guns]

Thou shalt not disrspect the Gilded Wookie, even if she be low hanging fruit.

[Slings and Arrows]

‘Strewth! You Yanks have some fugly critters!

Hey! You can't talk about our First Lady like that!

(That's our job.)

[jagusafr]

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Ya got me! I’m DYIN’ Heah!!

Colonel, USAFR

[OJDIDIT2]

I watched a Fisher Cat chase after a squirrel, the Cat could run up a tree as fast as the squirrel. The squirrel would get near the top of the tree and jump to the next tree. The Fisher cat would come down the tree as fast as he went up and go to the next tree. This happened 3 or 4 times and the squirrel ran out of trees to leap to. Finally it bailed out of the last tree jumping about 25 or 30 feet hitting its hind legs on a lawn ornament before it hit the ground. It did get away from the Fisher cat but was found dead in my garage a couple of days later.

[CommerceComet]

Those things are rumored to fight W-A-Y above their weight class. Like a 70 or 80 pound Doberman or German Shepard will get all they want AND THEN SOME if they get tangled up with one of these things.

As Frithguild stated earlier, a fisher is just a smaller version of the wolverine with the same personality. When one of cable networks (Animal Planet, Discovery, NatGeo) had the show on mock animal battles, I was hoping they would match a 50-pound wolverine against a 70-pound pit bull in one of their simulations. It would have been a battle to the death for sure, I suspect the pit bull's death.

[Allegra]

LOL!

[rintense]

Yep. They are usually nocturnal too. Anytime a nocturnal animal is out during the day, it is a possible sign of rabies, especially in skunks.

There are Fisher Cats along the creek in my back yard. I've never seen one on my property, but I'm pretty sure I saw one across the street near the water. I thought it was an otter at first, but realized it was too big to be one. Then an ex BF told me he and his father used to trap Fisher Cats along the creek.

I'm pretty sure they roam my property though. Several winters ago, I saw the most amazing paw print in the snow. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn it was a small bear. But it was a Fisher investigating my bird feeder.