Small Weasel-Like Animals Are Taking Down Big Cats
Two elusive predators, the lynx and the fisher, battle to the death in the snowstorms of New England.
In the empty winter forests of Maine, small weasel-like animals known as fishers bet against their mortal odds when it comes to food and survival.
New research shows for the first time that these opportunistic predators—not much larger than a big house cat—can and do take down Canadian lynx, which can grow up to double their size. (Related: Fierce, Furry Fishers Are Expanding Their Range—and Bulk.)
“A fisher really doesn’t have any boundaries in the size of the animal it’s willing to attack,” says Scott McLellan, assistant regional wildlife biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the lead author of a study published recently in the Journal of Wildlife Management.
“We know that fishers
