Fisher

turkeykirk

Senior Member
Up in New York with my hunting buddy doing a little late season Fall turkey hunting and helping him run his trap line. Caught this fisher this morning. Interesting animal.8A567F54-89BD-4C0F-950D-BD31B27F1AD8.jpeg
 

Nicodemus

The Recluse
Staff member
That`s gonna be a fine fur.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
I used to have a fisher fur hat, it's some nice fur.

There apparently used to be a small population of fishers (and snowshoe hares,) in the high-elevation spruce-fir forests here in western NC and eastern TN before industrial logging wiped them out back around the turn of the last century. They have kicked around the idea of reintroducing them in the Great Smoky Mountains national park.
 

blt152

Senior Member
They are building up quite a population in Northwest Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio. PA may have a trapping season and Ohio has none. They are a very effective little predator. The feed on squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits and ground nesting birds. The can and will climb trees and have been known to target roosting turkeys. The turkey populations along the state line between PA and Ohio are declining due to the Fishers. These two states better wake up before their turkey populations in these areas are too low to recover.
 

CritterCatcher

Senior Member
They're a vicious animal when caught in a foothold. Had to let one go once when I was trapping in Maine. Caught him too early. Wow, he did not like me at all.
 
They are destroying the population of Turkeys in Northern PA.

They didnt get the memo that they were introduced by the "play god" PA game commission to eat porcupines....

Talk about an APEX predator.

Another example of the PA game commission doing something EXTREMELY stupid.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
They are destroying the population of Turkeys in Northern PA.

They didnt get the memo that they were introduced by the "play god" PA game commission to eat porcupines....

Talk about an APEX predator.
They are native to PA, just like the turkeys.
 
Wolves and Mountain Lions were native across the United States including most of Georgia.. We should introduce them to Georgia, protect them and let their populations explode and then hold a limited trapping season for them. Sound like a good idea to you?
 

trad bow

wooden stick slinging driveler
Red wolves are native to the southeast. Florida panthers are native to the southeast. Too many people hunting here for either to repopulate their range. 99.9% of people will shoot a red wolf thinking they just shot a coyote.
The only thing overpopulating the southeast and the nation as a whole are humans.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Wolves and Mountain Lions were native across the United States including most of Georgia.. We should introduce them to Georgia, protect them and let their populations explode and then hold a limited trapping season for them. Sound like a good idea to you?
Yes. I would love to see our original fauna back. There was no shortage of game back when panthers and wolves were running everywhere in Georgia, along with a few hundred thousand folks hunting 24/7/365 for food. There were no Krogers or Ingles then. The paradise places that people pay thousands to go hunt out west and up north have wolves and mountain lions, plus grizzlies, wolverines, fishers, and other predators. Predators aren't your enemy. People are. And predator populations don't explode past the capacity of the prey base.
 

blt152

Senior Member
They are native to PA, just like the turkeys.
I have hunted Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York State for over 50yrs and never heard of Fishers in either state. Never saw them mentioned in either state's game law books. I trap and still have friends who trap and run dogs on coyotes and bobcats in Pennsylvania. They will tell you that the Fishers just showed up in the last 6 years. They at one time may have been native to Pennsylvania but never saw one or even heard of one in over 50yrs. of hunting in the portions of the state I hunted. Either way they are there now and are decimating the turkey population in the north and northwest sections of Pennsylvania.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
I have hunted Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York State for over 50yrs and never heard of Fishers in either state. Never saw them mentioned in either state's game law books. I trap and still have friends who trap and run dogs on coyotes and bobcats in Pennsylvania. They will tell you that the Fishers just showed up in the last 6 years. They at one time may have been native to Pennsylvania but never saw one or even heard of one in over 50yrs. of hunting in the portions of the state I hunted. Either way they are there now and are decimating the turkey population in the north and northwest sections of Pennsylvania.
That's because they were probably over trapped at some point. They are definitely native there, and have lived with the turkeys for about the last 100,000 years or more.
 

CritterCatcher

Senior Member
Red wolves are native to the southeast. Florida panthers are native to the southeast. Too many people hunting here for either to repopulate their range. 99.9% of people will shoot a red wolf thinking they just shot a coyote.
The only thing overpopulating the southeast and the nation as a whole are humans.
Anyone who cannot tell the difference between a coyote and a wolf should not be allowed in the woods.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Anyone who cannot tell the difference between a coyote and a wolf should not be allowed in the woods.
Most of our coyotes here in the southeast are part wolf. About 25%-30% according to DNA tests. They aren't western coyotes. Red wolves are likely just a hybrid gray wolf/coyote.
 

lampern

Senior Member
Fishers were reintroduced to Pa back in the 1990s.

Trappers wanted them back, just like they got the beavers and raccoons restocked in many areas.

Trappers don't care if they eat turkeys or eggs.

Same with the raccoons.


Look at all the troubles beavers and otters cause. Yet people wanted em back so they could trap em.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Fishers were reintroduced to Pa back in the 1990s.

Trappers wanted them back, just like they got the beavers and raccoons restocked in many areas.

Trappers don't care if they eat turkeys or eggs.

Same with the raccoons.


Look at all the troubles beavers and otters cause. Yet people wanted em back so they could trap em.
A fisher, otter, beaver, or raccoon is just as important as a turkey. Why is the turkey on a pedestal? How did turkeys co-exist with all of these critters for many thousands of years, along with many other predators that are no longer there?

People who farm or drive down the road at night might say the same about hunters and deer that you say about trappers and fishers.
I think things have a right to exist for their own sake, not just what they can do for us.
 

Throwback

Chief Big Taw
Fishers were reintroduced to Pa back in the 1990s.

Trappers wanted them back, just like they got the beavers and raccoons restocked in many areas.

Trappers don't care if they eat turkeys or eggs.

Same with the raccoons.


Look at all the troubles beavers and otters cause. Yet people wanted em back so they could trap em.


The key word is “reintroduced”

Meaning they were native to the area
 
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