Yet again, I’m looking to you, Dear Readers, for help in identifying my backyard wildlife.
Mr. Chili is trying to get grass to grow over the construction-devastated dirt that is most of our yard. This evening, he went out to check on the little seeds’ progress when he heard rustling and a sort of critter-like chirping in the little patch of woods and brush that separates our yard from the neighbors’. Closer investigation revealed that the ruckus was being rasied by these little guys.
There were three of them, and a critter that Mr. Chili determined to be the Mama. She, however, was across the street and separated from her babies by a woman walking her dog – the latter of whom was most interested in the ruckus being raised in our yard.
We have NO idea what these critters are. They gave me the impression of a cross between a big ferret and a tiny bear. Our first guess of muskrat was TOTALLY wrong (at least, according to the photos I pulled up from Google). Are they weasels? Can anyone I.D. these babies for me?
Oh my god! They are so cute. But i have NO IDEA what they are. I hope someone knows.
It kind of looks like a fisher cat, which are decidedly NOT cute and fuzzy.
Please note they WILL view small housepets as prey. Not trying to scare you, but you should check out…
http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/dfw_fisher.htm
VeryContrary said:
They’re fishercats. A member of the weasel family. And for all I know, you know this already but I can’t get your blog to accept my comments. Damnit.
Anyway, here’s the Wikipedia article.
Mr Chili doesn’t think they’re fisher cats; he thinks they’re long-tailed weasels. Keep in mind that the photographed critter is a baby; he tried to get a picture of the mama, but she was too fast….
You probably don’t want to wait until winter to see if it turns completely white, except for the black tip of the tail (which would indicate weasel).
Could you see if the underbelly was lighter?
Mr. Chili should know that fisher cats are “long tailed weasels”. Both weasels and fishers (martens) are mustelids, as are ferrets, minks, and ermin. Only fishers have such long thick tails.
Fishers have retractable claws, and can rotate their rear paws 180 degrees, to hang on while climbing down a tree. This is handy when they attack porcupines face-first; porcupines’ defense mechanism is to climb up a tree, and they’re not very agile. That’s why the fisher cat is the porcupine’s only natural predator.
Anyhoo… the fact that they were climbing a tree pretty well nails it. Fishers nest in trees, but the other mustelids stick to the ground.
You are all making compelling arguments for the fisher cat theory – and Sooza’s article makes me think you’re all correct; the photos in that article look much more like what our critters looked like than any we could find in Google Images under “fisher cat.”
The hope is that this little family were just passing through. We have four CAT cats, and we’d very much like them to NOT become someone else’s dinner.
Cute? Maybe in a zoo where they are, you know, behind glass. In your BACK FREAKING YARD? Oh, hell no.
Good luck and keep a sharp eye. Also maybe a trip to the doc for some antivenom or something should they attack.
I’m not helping, am I?
All of a sudden I’m really glad we’re meeting for lunch on Fri away from your house.
Oh, and the “annual visitor” on your Flickr page is a woodchuck. Maybe he can chuck wood at the fisher cats.
If it keeps the fisher cats from eating the CAT cats, I’m all for it!
Keep an eye out; the next “backyard wildlife” picture is a bird who is trying her hardest to let herself in our bedroom window. I’ll post about her as soon as I get a really good picture….
It’s a weasel. Shoot it now.
Dudley, HAHAHAHAHA! There were FOUR of them – three babies and a mama. It would have been carnage (besides, you know better than to think we’ve got GUNS in the Chili household. Though… my neighbor is a cop…. hmmmmm…
I am certain that what you have pictured here is an alien life form. Somewhere, in the depths of space and time, or spacetime, this fellow has a planet of origin, but he was born with a gypsy bone.