Mustelidae are the baddest mammals, nothing you can do about it

[Zookeeper Gabe]

I have a fisher who just moved in close to my house. He's fuckin awesome. He came at the perfect time because porcupines were starting to chew on a part of my house.

I noticed him running around one day in the area in my woods where the porcupines come from. He definitely killed those fuckers. Haven't seen one since. I see him running around all the time. He's awesome to watch and he looks like he's having so much fun.

If you can get footage of it running around that would be awesome. I love fishers

 

[Fungoose]

I was skeptical of this claim so I googled it and it says there's only one case of a leopard seal killing a human- it dragged a female biologist 200 feet underwater. They are certainly capable of killing a human at sea, but generally don't see us as prey.

To be fair, human interaction with wild leopard seals isn’t all that common.

 

[Stranger Come Knocking]

If you can get footage of it running around that would be awesome. I love fishers

Will give it a shot. Gonna go walk in the woods tomorrow morning. (Forest bathing)

 

[MikeMcMann]

To be fair, lions seem confused at the durability of badgers as well. They maul and ravage them, but when they release them the badger hops up and goes straight for the cock and balls. Lions often grow bored (or tired) of the encounter before actually being able to inflict fatal wounds. I’m sure more than one badger has gone to bed content, with a belly full of lion testicles.

Ya tough bastards. Killable but hardly worth the effort and they almost always inflict some serious damage before going.

This Ross Pride lioness was captured killing a honeybadger in the Klaserie area of the Greater Kruger Park at Africa on Foot Camp. It took the lioness 23 minutes to kill the honeybader, indicating just how tough the badgers are!

I intended this video to debunk the myth that honey badgers are indestructible apex predators, while also showing why animals that can kill them would rather avoid them. Honey Badgers are very difficult to kill, especially by the suffocating kill-bite method used by the big cats, since the skin about a Honey Badger's neck is both very loose and very tough. Rapid disembowelment as practiced by painted dogs and spotted hyenas would yield better, faster results, as the Honey Badger's underside is its most vulnerable area.

 

[MusterX]

this one was trying to "feed" the cameraman penguins it caught.

Yea I've seen that. Its scary though, that's a very large predator that would bite straight through your bones like potato chips.

 

[MikeMcMann]

To be fair, human interaction with wild leopard seals isn’t all that common.

Yup. We don't really look to purposely swim in their waters and I suspect most encounters would go unseen, when they happen and so any missing human would be just that 'missing'.

 

[fallable]

I had a thought once about putting some species of mustelid, maybe a marten or a fisher, on an island with nothing but large prey, like domestic sheep or something. Over time the marten/fisher would probably tend to get much larger as only those who could kill sheep would survive and pass their genes on, plus one sheep provides a huge amount of food. Over time island gigantism could kick in. Imagine wolf sized fishers or martens? There could also be a situation where they start to hunt in packs to improve chances of taking down large prey. Imagine wolf sized fishers and martens that hunt in packs.

 

[MikeMcMann]

I had a thought once about putting some species of mustelid, maybe a marten or a fisher, on an island with nothing but large prey, like domestic sheep or something. Over time the marten/fisher would probably tend to get much larger as only those who could kill sheep would survive and pass their genes on, plus one sheep provides a huge amount of food. Over time island gigantism could kick in. Imagine wolf sized fishers or martens? There could also be a situation where they start to hunt in packs to improve chances of taking down large prey. Imagine wolf sized fishers and martens that hunt in packs.

I've seen that movie

 

[fallable]

I've seen that movie

 

[Fungoose]

I intended this video to debunk the myth that honey badgers are indestructible apex predators, while also showing why animals that can kill them would rather avoid them.

I don’t really think that’s a myth, in that I’m not sure many people actually believe that. I’ve heard all manner of silliness from Hyenas being canines to daddy long legs being the most venomous spider in the world. I’ve never heard anyone refer to badgers as indestructible apex predators. With that said, they are exceptionally tough and tenacious. That video showed an elderly female badger with a limp noticeable enough to immediately draw the attention of the leopard. It still took the leopard over an hour to kill it, and the leopard was injured/limping after the encounter. That’s pretty goddamned ferocious considering the leopard was (at least) tree times the size of the badger.

 

[Fungoose]

There could also be a situation where they start to hunt in packs to improve chances of taking down large prey. Imagine wolf sized fishers and martens that hunt in packs.

Yellow throated martens hunt in packs for musk deer.

 

[MikeMcMann]

Yellow throated martens hunt in packs for musk deer.

I love threads like this and ones by @Zookeeper Gabe as I learn so much about animals. Martens, Fishers, ...i've got hours of googling ahead of me as I learn about these now and I love it. I was a guy who watched every single nature show as a kid growing up and was always fascinated by animal and insect life.

If you have any interesting videos to link me too on Martens or Fishers or others please do.

 

[Fungoose]

I love threads like this and ones by @Zookeeper Gabe as I learn so much about animals. Martens, Fishers, ...i've got hours of googling ahead of me as I learn about these now and I love it. I was a guy who watched every single nature show as a kid growing up and was always fascinated by animal and insect life.

If you have any interesting videos to link me too on Martens or Fishers or others please do.

Search for fisher screams, or fisher cat screams. It may take a bit of searching to find any worth a damn, the last time I tried to pull some up the results were underwhelming. Up close and in person, it’s pretty wild. I know I have a camera and an old phone with some good audio, but they are buried in storage. I need to to dig through that shit. Every time I can’t find something that I’m certain I own, I think about going to rummage through it!

 

[Fungoose]

 

[mrsenor]

weasel wednesdays

 

[Amerikuracana]

I've seen a mink.. Once.

 

[Plissken]

Search for fisher screams, or fisher cat screams. It may take a bit of searching to find any worth a damn, the last time I tried to pull some up the results were underwhelming. Up close and in person, it’s pretty wild. I know I have a camera and an old phone with some good audio, but they are buried in storage. I need to to dig through that shit. Every time I can’t find something that I’m certain I own, I think about going to rummage through it!

I hear them quite often, them and foxes' mating calls are extremely loud and will definitely wake you up (the latter will wake up the entire neighborhood. Fisher calls sound like a woman screaming when you first hear them.

 

[bad seed]

 

[Slobodan]

My Uncle Jim fell into the Otter enclosure at London Zoo back in the day. Had to get a few rabies shots and he played it off like it was nothing, but he hasn't fallen into an enclosure since so I think he learnt a lesson

Zer you magnificent bastard, you always know how to make someone laugh.

 

[squeezewax]

I'd love a couple of ferrets but unfortunately we are not allowed to have them in Qld.[or rabbits.] However across the border in NSW you can.