Fisher Cat??
 

What do you think...is this a Fisher?? Definitely not a coon, otter or mink...My guess is a Fisher Cat...

https://video.nest.com/clip/1e5c172a...2a950cc15f.mp4

Dan

Which way did it go?
 

Which way did it go. Video had left the internet.

???
 

Not sure what you mean by "video had left the internet"...? I just looked at it and it seems fine...

Never had a House Cat, so...
 

Video can be deliberately halted frame-by-frame...interesting. :cool:

Should be "chunkier" for a fisher, but legs are shorter, holds its tail flatter; otherwise, looks like a house cat.
:confused:

Looks like a house cat Dan...fishers are pretty long and move with kind of a hunched up back..this one is raiding a bear bait site I had in my back woods.

Not Sure
 

Hill;

The only thing that is throwing me is if you look at the video around the 29 second mark, the tail is dragging on the ground and seems way to wide and long to be a house cat...

Honest Dan
 

Honest Dan, I clicked on the link and the message said the video was no longer on the internet.

It's fine now.

I'm not sure what it is. I don't think it is a cat. We have otters in the brook behind our house, and they seem to like to slide on the snow when they can.

Full screen on my tablet, I'm leaning toward a fisher as opposed to an otter or mink. I've only seen one fisher in the wild, and my memory thinks the way the animal in the video moves is le what I remember. Great video regardless.

Dave

Looks to be a mink. The minks I have seen have black or dark brown fur with bright yellow eyes and is able to swim/run along the shoreline water and broken ice, going from ice to water to ice quickly, and crawl along the lake embankment with big speed.

Mink
 

My guess is a mink. They love the rocky shore. Definitely not a house cat. A house cat wouldn’t survive on the island, either starve or eaten.

Dan, after looking again and stopping and starting the vid, I have changed my mind...the tail is surely dragging. Definitely a wild critter but I still don’t think it’s a Fisher...mink or otter or be my new guess!

I’m starting to lean towards a mink myself now....a really big well fed mink!!!

Ahhh the almighty woodswise elf has spoken! ;)

Tapered tail gives me the opposite impression.

Mink, there are several that live along that shore.

Fisher-cats have large hindquarters, and long and furry rear feet.

Mink are small creatures: They're nearly chipmunk-sized! :look:

This critter is nearly as long as the dock is wide. How many estimated feet is that critter covering of your dock width, 308?

The ice is "in"; could've strolled over, looking for mice.

Guessing 48" wide...

Here is a definite mink taken with the same camera just a couple weeks ago. Much smaller as APS said... I'm going back to my original thought...Fisher!

This little bugger was sneaking drinks at the tiki bar!!

https://video.nest.com/clip/b4cc4288...c09b101769.mp4

Dan

Here's what it says about the mink in www.wikipedia.org/wiki/mink ..... except it doesn't answer the question ..... why does it take 100 mink to make a fur coat? ..... because they are lazy and have small hands!

Upon further study (the date stamp hinders my view exactly where the animal is moving around) it is definitely a Fisher!
Maybe if I watch the video from my PC the date stamp won’t be right where the animal is. I have been watching from my phone so I think it changes the video “window”

Definitely not a Fisher
 

I believe the first video shows an otter. Their tails are made for swimming and believe me, they are quite good at it. The second video is a different animal - that one is a mink. Check out the differences in the tail (one dragging on the ground the other up in the air) and the sizes are definitely different. I've seen mink on our rocky shoreline on Paugus Bay several time, right along the rocks and near the water and we had an otter in our pond last year so I got several good looks at that one. Granted - i'm not an expert but i've seen both in the wild and i'm 99% sure one is an otter, the other a mink.

This is a Fisher
 

Going with Fisher...
 

Remarkable for its size! :eek:
-------------------

By the process of elimination:

Mink...No. Video critter is much too large.
House Cat...Unlikely. Tail held wrong, remote island.
Weasel...No. Not skinny or "slinky" enough--colors wrong.
Otter...No. Hindquarters are huge in otters, tail is strongly tapered and smooth. Video shows fluffy, cat-like tail.

Like upthesauke, I've seen only one Fisher, and it was in daylight. Video "moves" are consistent with Fisher.

I have seen two fishers in the wild, both about 2/3 the size of the very large one in the photo. One while was walking crossed a woods road about 20' in front and stopped for a brief look at me. The other bonded across a road in front of my vehicle at night. IMHO the critter in the original video is just too small to be an adult fisher.

Could be a young of the year fisher...

Oh, Go Fisher!
 

Looks like fishers that we have seen in our area in southern NH. Friends of ours on Welch Island have seen fishers on their property there. 🐻

Oh yeah...viewed it on my large PC screen and can see clearly the head and ears are of a Fisher! Probably looking for that mink to gobble up!
My brother witnessed a chase between a fisher and a red squirrel from his tree stand while deer hunting...his account of the chase was amazing in that the fisher was right on the ass of the squirrel for the whole chase up and down trees and jumping from one tree to another. Lasted quite a while before they disappeared out of sight...:D

Fisher Cat?
 

Has anybody considered a martin? I looked in a Field Guide to the Mammals and it looks more like a martin including their description of color and shape of its tail. The size or shading doesn't match the video of the mink shown in a later video.

Marten...Good Match, But...
 

YouTube has a similar chase with a grey squirrel. I found myself cheering for the squirrel :look:; unfortunately, the squirrel lost the chase! :(

The Marten would be a good match. It's a weasel listed with NH F&G at their web page; however, it would appear to be out of both its geographic- and elevation- range.

Still, I wouldn't rule it out. :)

Not sure why the Marten picture won't appear... :confused:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File...arten_area.png