One possibility is that fishers in the West are being killed by predators like wolves and pumas, which we don't have in the East. But on the West Coast, they're doing much worse. "On the East Coast, they're doing really well and the population is growing, even with the limits of fur trapping, they're expanding into Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. "It's interesting because there's still stuff that's unknown," Kays says. Scientists still aren't totally sure what species the fisher kills and why, and vice versa. But if someone does find some evidence, I'm not going to argue with it." People attribute it to them, but it's more likely a coyote, a known cat killer, or a great horned owl. But we've done a lot of tracking - and now it's interesting because they're moving into a lot of urban and suburban areas - and we've gone out and followed their footprints in the snow and we've seen them crossing with cat footprints in the same area, but have never found a dead cat and have never found cat in the fisher's diet. "They're certainly the right size, so they should be able to take down a smaller, or inexperienced, or lazy, fat house cat. "There's no actual physical evidence of a fisher eating a house cat and as a scientist, I like to evaluate evidence," Kays says. While the fisher probably has some fun stalking and consuming porcupine, it's less likely that it applies the same stone-cold killer qualities to other potential prey, despite what news reports say. No one's ever filmed it, but we've seen evidence in the snow of what probably happened." "Most animals leave them alone but porcupines are pretty big and slow and pretty lethargic, so the fisher circles until it can bite its head. "They're the right combination of small and fast, so they circle the porcupine and then dash it, grab it by the head because that's the only part not covered in quills, and crush the skull," he says. While there's no evidence to prove how the fisher does the dirty work, Kays says the grisly act is right in line with the carnivore's impressive skills. Kays says the fisher has a lot of fun stalking, killing and consuming the prickly critter most animals would avoid like the plague.
0 kommentar(er)
