Fisher??

[ceelove]

I have seen rats, opossums, skunks, turkeys, hawks, owls, raccoons, and groundhogs in Somerville over the years. I’ve heard of coyotes in Davis. I wouldn’t expect deer or bear to make it into this most-densely-populated-city-in-New-England, but I wouldn’t be surprised either.

But yesterday I saw a critter trot-galumphing under cars and across the street that I’ve never seen before, anywhere. It moved like a ferret but was bigger; it had the mass of a groundhog but not the body shape. Like, a huge bumbly weasel or a little fluffy otter.

The best fit I can find for how it looked was a fisher. That has a range that includes Massachusetts, but it’s such a not-urban animal as to be absurdly improbable. But turkeys seem pretty improbable and are now an urban fact of life, so...

Anyone else? Seen an animal that could be a fisher? Have ideas about what else it might be?

ETA: Okay, having watched some YouTube videos of fishers (taking down a groundhog and a fox), I am quite convinced that’s what I saw. Also convinced it could enter someone’s backyard and eat their dog, to say nothing of indoor-outdoor cats.

Comments

[squirrelitude]

I can't imagine what else it would be, and they're certainly in the Fells. Very exciting! I'd love to see one.

[sovay]

The best fit I can find for how it looked was a fisher.

I hope it was! I love them.

[elusiveat]

Yay fisher! This pleases me : )

[sauergeek]

I saw a group of them in a conservation area in Waltham several years ago. I no longer remember which conservation area, though. I haven't seen any closer in, but I would not be at all surprised to find that one or more has migrated from the Fells or another conservation area nearby.

[irilyth]

I saw a show called Meet The Weasels on the Discovery channel 15 - 20 years ago, on which I learned the horrifyingly grotesque details of how the fisher manages to be one of the few animals to successfully prey on porcupines. Fascinating, but not for the faint of heart.

[jered]

Fishers are awesome, but not having seen could it be a possum? We have unusually large possums in our yard from time to time, but the dog interaction is usually.... the opposite of what you fear. (OTOH, we have very large dogs.) Our 140lb bullmastiff "caught" a possum a few years ago and paraded it around against our protestations.... he eventually dropped the "dead" creature and it vanished shortly thereafter.

[ceelove]

Among other experiences with them, I have personally trapped and removed three opossums from within my own house. This was not an opossum. (Just so you know, it was also not a possum, which is an Australian marsupial different from the north American opossum.)