As homesteader chickens go so to goes their predators.
I recently received on outreach from someone that felt that a fisher was vexing their chickens.
Fishers were once extirpated in Pennsylvania, but have started to recolonize the Commonwealth migrating in WV and NY in additional to be reintroduced. However, the only evidence I can find of fishers existing anywhere in my area, Pittsburgh, is one not so great report on iNaturalist.
With all of the usual chicken raiders out there – raccoons, hawks, foxes, and coyotes – I was very skeptical that this chicken vexer was a fisher. However, it could not be ruled out until some form of investigation was conducted. I talked to the chicken coop owner and requested any evidence that might exist. I received the three pictures below…
So, what do we have in this print? It’s large, there are 5 digits, all seem to be evenly spaced, and they radiate around the palm. Speaking of the palm, it is nice and flat in one pic, but raised in the other two. Bad contact in the other two?
My initial guess was that this was a raccoon. The coop owner swore that it was a weasel. I was still skeptical so I sent out all three pics to a crew of swashbuckling naturalists to get their consensus. These swashbucklers overruled me. In their opinion, it was an unknown mustelid. It was the pic below that they pointed to as evidence.
In their opinion, it was that placement of fifth digit was a bit too much on the side to be a raccoon. I’m inclined to trust their wisdom, but I have to rule this one as being inconclusive. We need more evidence to officially identify this perp!