Group of Fisher Cats

[Sean]

Has anyone every seen fisher cats traveling together?
I was walking in the woods in Ashburnham, MA this morning. 4 animals crossed the trail behind me. They stopped, looked at me, and then split into two groups as they ran away.
I looked at some animal ID guides and did an online search. They looked like fisher cats, but I had thought that fishers were solitary animals.
Sean

 

[nartreb]

Were they all the same size? Fishers are solitary, but they breed in the spring and the females look after the young until at least age six months. One to five pups per litter.

 

[brianW]

Could it have been a group of river otter? They like to play together. I have seen them in Winchendon, MA doing this close to the center of town. They tend to stick close to bodies of water but are known to do a lot of wandering also. Again saw one in Winchendon were ther was no body of water close by (by the American Legion) Fisher and otter are about the same size.

Besides during the breeding season or when a female is raising its young fishers are solitary as far as I know.

 

[Sean]

It could very well have been otter. They were all close to the same size, and otter was the first thing that came to mind when I saw them. They were pretty far away from any water though.

 

[Doc McPeak]

I have seen a pair of fishers before. Not together, but within a hundred feet or so, with the second coming in the direction of the hiding spot of the first. The female was very round, too, and being late spring most likely carrying offspring. I've been lucky and seen fishers 6 times for sure with a couple of maybes. They are very cool. I'd love to see a river otter! How about the Giant River Otters of the Amazon that protect their turf by wrestling crocs and snacking on Pirahna!? Saw that once on Nature and it blew my mind. I wanna come back as a GRO! (Support your local PBS. )

 

[Sean]

So no reports of groups of fishers together. I am going to assume that I saw river otters. They did not appear to be crocodile wrestling otters; no crocodiles in Ashburnham.

 

[carole]

About 2 weeks ago 4 fishers in a group crossed the road in front of me. I, too, was surprised to see them in a group. River otters they were not.

 

[Dugan]

I was lucky enough to see two family groups of fishers in the past several months, both in the North Central MA area. My other fisher sightings have all been solitary animals.

I haven't seen fishers much, but I have watched otters. I don't think they look that much alike, nor do they seem to move in the same way.

From personal observation, the otter has a longer more pointed tail. The fisher has a more blunt, squared off muzzle, and more visible ears. The otter is more squat than the fisher - wider body, shorter legs.

 

[Sean]

Upon further review, I believe that what I saw were simply Rodents of Unusual Size and Ferocity.

 

[dave p.]

Fisher Cats

A Fisher Cat was found on Cape Cod yesterday. It was dead on the side of Route 130 in Sandwich. If they are not native to the Cape, does that mean they walk over the bridge at night when nobody is looking?

 

[DaveSunRa]

Snapped a photo of a fishercat this spring near Mt Washington