What do you think is one of the most common mid-sized predatory mammals roaming our Wood-Pawcatuck watershed woodlands at night? Raccoons? Foxes? The neighbor’s cat? Nope, the right answer might be fishers. Fishers are in the mammal family Mustelidae, the same as weasels and skunks. They are not cats, although they appear cat-like. They are a large (males can be 15-18 pounds) forest predator and feed on rabbits, mice, squirrels, and other small prey. When the Mammals of Rhode Island was written in 1968, there were no authenticated reports of fishers in RI. Today, fishers are common in our forests. This is probably a result of a number of factors; including the extent of forest habitat in the RI as well as the availability of prey.
The photographs here were taken along the Upper Wood River in the Spring of 2009.
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