The fisher didn’t know what to make of a fake human skeleton that was part of a trick or treat prank in this video by BDN contributor Allie Ladd.
Fishers, which are members of the weasel family Mustelid, are carnivores and will eat carrion of deer, moose and beaver, besides hunting for live food on the ground and in trees, according to Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
They eat snowshoe hare, which is a preference they share with the Canada lynx. Fishers also will eat porcupines, small rodents, upland birds, seasonal nuts and fruits, and in recent years were found to be predators of Canada lynx, according to MDIF&W.
But fishers do not eat fish. Their name comes from their similarity to a European “fitch” or “fiche” — a polecat.
They are elusive animals and not often seen because they avoid open territories. They like edges of woods, brush piles, dens and other places where they can hide. The animals are more nocturnal in the summer and diurnal in the winter, the MDIF&W website said.
There is a trapping season for fishers, and caught animals must be tagged and registered with the state.