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Last month, as I was getting ready for bed in my very suburban home on a quiet cul-de-sac, I heard a strange, screeching animal call in the distance. It was like something you’d hear in a movie that was set in the jungle.
“What was that?” I asked my husband, Jamie, who was scrolling through Facebook on his phone.
“Someone posted about hearing a weird noise recently around here, and it was some animal I never heard of,” Jamie replied, searching for the post. “I remember them saying it can eat small dogs.”
“Great,” I said as I looked over at our Jack Russell-chihuahua mix sleeping soundly on the floor.
It turns out that fishers (Martes pennanti) were reintroduced to Ohio and other states in 1994. Populations have since flourished, as they have few natural predators. Also called fisher cats, they are neither cats nor very interested in fish; rather, they are a member of the weasel family. Fishers also are more interested in rabbits and porcupines than in our 25-pound dog, as a little research enlightened me. See a picture of one at right.
But remember, not every customer is going to conduct research beyond what they read in an alarming Facebook post. As Charles Holt, president of the National Wildlife Control Operators Association, notes in our cover story, it’s important for those offering wildlife services to not only explain the risks of “scary animals,” but also to dispel related inaccurate rumors and myths.
Read more of our wildlife control coverage:
