Question for states that have a lot of Fishers

Do you notice in areas with good population of fishers that your population of coons is lower? Fisher are fairly new to PA and in areas where they are increasing it seems the coon numbers are down. I know both animals compete for denning sites & a fisher will win out every time if it wants that site. Could this be it? or just coincidence ?

The Tug Hill Plateau area of NY is loaded with fisher. They were reintroduced in the 1960s and have done well. I agree our raccoon population is low. I don’t know if from competing for dens ,or from rabies outbreaks, but I do know fisher will eat raccoons. Also, since the fisher population has boomed, our hare and grouse population has suffered.

Can't say that I've noticed that. Most areas I trap fisher I don't expect to catch coon. I have caught coon in fishers sets but these were set in the vicinity of beaver dams. Most of my fisher trapping is on hardwood ridges mixed with pine, hemlock. I've never caught nor expected to catch coon in these areas.

Every area is different.

I don't know if it's coincidence or not in your case. I do know that I have never seen any lower Coon population that I attribute to just to Fishers. The price of raccoon pelts and disease affect populations more than anything else I also know that raccoons can be a problem in December trying to trap Fisher when you have a warm spell.

The major area of WI where our fishers populated after being reintroduced, never has been an area where coon were common or higher in population. There is just not enough corn and other crops to sustain a large coon population in that area. The last 20 years or so it seems the fishers have move further south into what would be more central and north central WI and I have not heard anyone discuss they are seeing fewer coons in those areas. Coon and and do utilize a very wide range of food stuffs and denning sites that make them more adaptable then fishers. I don't know the majore reason for the fisher dissappearance in our northern region, but we have had increases in black bear, bobcat and wolves over the last 2-3 decades. As the forests in northern WI mature there is much less habitat for prey and thus fewer predators will be on the landscape as well.

Bryce

Bryce,

Spot on about the forests, more forest = less deer, elk, moose etc. Whats a little frustrating to some degree is that we have not a great clue of whats what in the animal population world. Be interesting to see where all the populations settle at with wolves and everything else back in the mix.

I have to disagree about fisher being not as adaptable as raccoons. Fisher will eat about everything that a raccoon will eat, including fruit and vegetables. In NY they have expanded their range and live in most any habitat from climax forest in the Adirondack Mountains to open farmland in southern NY.

We've got plenty of fishers. We've got a bunch of raccoons, too. I honestly haven't noticed ANY difference in the coon population since fishers showed up here 25+ years ago.

The one thing the fishers definitely AREN'T putting ANY hurt on is the porcupines. That was SUPPOSED to be their one (and in my opinion ONLY) redeeming quality............

I think thats what our game commission was hoping too. For fishers to target the porcupines. Seems our fishers like our squirrels better. This comes from a few reports of trappers checking stomach contents

A few years ago I caught over 400 coon and 3 Fisher within 15 miles of my home, last season I caught 40 times as many fisher and 17 coon in all the same areas so i would have to believe that fisher definately impact the coon population! I think they are very hard in young coon pups, not positive how they'd do against a 30 pound old boar but coon pups are like a buffet

Almost every fisher I skin here has quills in its body, makes skinning interesting.

Almost every fisher I skin here has quills in its body, makes skinning interesting.[/quote]


That's interesting Bass1. Will bring that up at the next trapping get together. Personally i haven't encountered that yet. But we're only allowed one fisher a year so far

I was hoping for that too.

I've had our two dogs to the vet for quill removal TWICE since the first of July !!!!!!

It actually seems like the porcupines got here at the same time as the fishers (fishers followed them in ??) and the porcupines multiplied as fast as the fishers. We never had porcupines here until about 20-25 years ago.

We have a lot of Fisher and a lot of Raccoons, also a fair amount of porkeys, I have skinned quite a few Fisher with quills in them . As far as Fisher feeding on Raccoons, On my cams I see both Fisher & coons feeding, but never at the same time.

I have seen a decline in fisher in the central adirondacks. We also have a low coon population. I have attributed the coon decline to rabies. I have often wondered about the relationship of fisher with bobcats.

Not sure I can contribute much, if anything to this post. Where I trap in PA, we have a fair number of porkies. We don’t have many raccoons or fisher. There was 1 fisher trapped in the township last season according to PGC. We have a lot of bobcats and coyotes. I lean towards bobcats being hard on fishers. My concern is the smaller females getting taken by a larger predator, bobcat or coyote, when they have young. Then the whole family unit perishes. I have not been able to find any evidence, in literature or PGC, that it is actually the case.