Thoughts....Bob Cat and Fisher ?

Do you experts find with more Cats in an area ....there are less fisher ? Will Cats push out fisher ( I think so ) . Bob Cats are protected here in NH....but Maine and Vermont have seasons . And our fisher season limit has been lowered to just 2 ....was 5 last year. Maybe our state is out of balance with Cats vs Fisher ? What do you think ?

Try sending a PM to N.Roberts on here. He’s a fur biologist for Wisconsin. He lives in cat & fisher country and really knows his stuff.

I'm no expert by any stretch but I have eyes and we've had great conditions for tracking most of the winter. I've seen fresh fisher and cat sign in the same general areas on fresh snow all winter long. Fresh tracks of both between twenty-four hour checks.

Some reading about fisher:

https://www.researchgate.net/public...ITY_FOR_FISHERS_AND_MARTENS_IN_MINNESOTA


“More to Discover.
While the biologists don't believe bobcats alone have much impact on the deer population, Erb has evidence the growing bobcat population might be affecting another furbearer—the fisher. A study Erb is conducting has shown fisher populations have declined in the core bobcat range.”

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mcvmagazine/issues/2014/jan-feb/bobcats.html

AS AN Adirondack Fisher trapper for many years I am far from being a wildlife biologist. For many years I have felt that there is a connection between the abundance of bobcats and fisher.When one population is high the other seems to be low. At the present time bobcats are increasing in the Adirondacks while the Fisher population has declined drastically.I don't think bobcats are the only reason for the decline. Snowshoe hare populations are at a low, as are Ruffed Grouse. I also think the lack of sound forest Management and also over harvest have played a big role.
One thing that is obvious is the lack of knowledge about fishers among biologists is very evident and they don't have a clue on season dates or amount allowed to be taken.
I have been fortunate to have seen fisher in the wild and am particularly impressed with their speed. Personally I find instance of predation of fishers hard to believe as happening often, whereas over trapping, in my opinion, is the biggest factor for their decline, along with food availability..

Both have increased on my line as the bush has aged.
In this country Lynx as well as fisher start to use the bush around 25 to 35 years regrowth after a fire or clearcut.Marten quite a bit later.

Turkey? Our hare population peaked two or three years ago with our grouse population being about average for these parts. It seems the bobcat population has exploded and there appears to be plenty of fisher around.

IMO i think the fisher population is down due to birds of prey picking off the young . My part of ny has a very high population of owls. I see and hear more owls during deer season then i do deer. I think there also to blame for our declining turkey population. I dont see much cat sign around where i am so that leads me to believe there not doing much to the fisher population.

To the NY guys. I grew up between Utica and Frankfort on the south side of the Mohawk river. Fisher population there is way up in numbers. Maybe many of them are just following the best food source. I've hunted in the lower Adirondacks, I saw fisher there in the '70's. They can cross the Barge Canal in the winter pretty easily. How they get across the river except when frozen over? Are they good swimmers? Grouse numbers in the area I speak of have been down for decades due to habitat change. However, starting in the mid 90's much of the timbered areas have been logged at least once. That opened the undergrowth, and maybe created better habitat for the fisher. To the best of my knowledge there are very few cats in that general area.

Good post fisherman

The same thing is happening here as fisherman describes, been seeing less fisher sign for going on ten years but lots of cats. Counties south of us are seeing more fisher. On a good note snowshoes are finally making a comeback. I don't cover a huge area so take it for what it's worth.

I don't know the northern New England wildlife populations well but here in WI in the northern portion we have prey species such as snowshoes, muskrats, red and pine squirrels, whitetail deer, grouse, beaver, turkeys, geese, ducks that would make up the most of the normal prey species. One can add eggs, younger bear and young predators as well. Also domestics such as livestock and pets.
The predators are wolves, coyotes, fisher, bobcat, mink, otter, black bear,fox and coon for the most part. Many of these predators have increased in their numbers and range. As the prey supply remains the same or even declines and we have more species of predators the number of each predator declines to match the available habitat. Some predators will be more successful than others and some are more cyclic than others.

Bryce

And lots of the smaller predators are scavengers also that depend heavily on larger predators like wolves,especially in late winter when wolves are more successful at killing large prey.Too many wolves are no good,but in balance they are an important part of a healthy boreal ecosystem.

A lot like this here. In my area the spruce, poplars, aspen and the like are now harvested on a 20 year cycle for primarily glossy paper products so it’s not conducive to fisher or cats. If I find swamp edges with trees over 35 years old or so both species are doing fine sharing habitat.

Osky