Fisher Cat Attack Chickens
However if they attack a chick or a full grown bird they usually leave feathers or wings behind because they can t get these parts down their throats.
Fisher cat attack chickens. Still you will usually see no other signs of disturbance. They will eat the neck and head and may have the breast of the bird opened up as well. Feathers and footprints obvious struggle multiple brutally killed chickens missing neck chest regions carcass present. Cats always leave pieces of their prey lying around.
Fishers aka fisher cats these extremely effective chicken predators are rather rare but still prevalent in the northeast united states especially in massachusetts. They even sometimes play with their prey before eating it. They may also try to remove some of them from the coop. Fisher cats don t fish and really aren t cats at all.
Cats are great hunters and will easily kill a chicken. They might try to drag them away. You will be unlikely to catch an attack in progress. Even if you feed your cat regularly they will still kill chickens birds and mice.
They are a member of the mustelid family that includes weasels minks otters and skunks. Fisher cats are not pleasant creatures. Fishers may kill one or two birds occasionally more if they are trying to cache food for the hard times ahead. Weasels fisher cats and minks are just some of the 55 species in the the family mustelidae which is also commonly referred to as the weasel family.
One thing for sure is that cats are very messy eaters. According to the massachusetts division of fisheries and wildlife fisher cats are predators that prey on medium sized mammals and poultry. Chicken owners especially need to be very vigilant about fisher cats because chickens are probably the fisher cat s favorite food. Fishers view domestic cats and rabbits as food and will.
They will often raid chicken coops and are capable of killing many chickens at once. The least weasel which we will discuss here is common in the northern us and canada but this family is carnivorous and chances are no matter where you go in the western. Signs of fisher cat mink or weasel attack. Recognize a fisher cat s attack.
They are vicious predators.