Do you have an outdoors photo or video to share? Send it to pwarner@bangordailynews.com and tell us, “I consent to the BDN using my photo/video.”
Fishers are sleek creatures scampering around the Maine woods. Elegant might be another way to describe them.
Today’s trail camera offering shows us the lengths to which these elusive members of the weasel family will go to capitalize on the opportunity for a free meal.
Allie Ladd of Byron set up this camera overlooking the site of a beaver carcass that he tethered to some bushes.
The fisher performs a blowdown balancing act as it braces itself to grab some meat off the beaver remains. Notice the beaver’s tail remains intact, flapping at the tugging of the fisher.
“Fisher are in the weasel (mustelid) family and are typically 10-20 pounds. They are abundant and occur throughout the forests of Maine,” said Shevenell Webb, furbearer biologist with knowledge of fishers who works for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Fishers, which are skilled tree climbers, are opportunistic animals, she said. They are one of only a few predators that will kill porcupines.
Fishers also eat snowshoe hares, squirrels, small mammals, nuts and berries, Webb said.
“They are very curious, have a good nose, and are always on the move,” Webb said.
Our thanks to Allie Ladd for another awesome video featuring one of the state’s reclusive forest animals.