Alberta Mammals?

[bombay_43]

I just took a photo of an animal, about the size of a large house cat. Dark brown in colour, with light beige around the eyes. It had a long furry tail, and had climbed high into a poplar tree. I have seen this animal once before, but do not know what it is.

I looked up "lemur" on the internet, and apart from the ringtail, and really ringed eyes, it looks alot like it. No it is not a raccoon. This animal is much more sleek looking.

Anybody know what this animal is?

We live in NE Alberta.

[rookie]

martin or a fisher perhaps... look up either of these... and out of curiosity, where in ne alta?

[bombay_43]

Thanks, I checked the photos on the internet. Could be either one of these, although I tend to lean toward the fisher. Quite a beautiful animal. His face looked almost like a tiny bear.

Cold Lake area.

[cakadu]

I read your description to my husband and he figures what you saw is a pine martin. A fisher gets pretty big, but he agrees it could be one of those as well.

I've never seen a live one, just in pictures.

[gwynplaine]

DON'T POKE IT WITH A STICK. They're tougher than they look (that's a mistake you only make once...).

[gwynplaine]

don't have any strange furry critters lurking around but the friendly neighbourhood moose appears to have taken up residence in the house yard again this year.She pruned all the shrubs last winter !
She's another critter that you DON"T POKE WITH A STICK !!!

[bombay_43]

I haven't found too many critters that I would want to "Poke with a stick" unless we discuss some of the two legged ones! (not talking about ostriches)

I showed the photos to a hunter friend of ours today, he says it is a fisher. He claims there are more and more of them in the area. They can actually catch squirrels, so you can bet they are fast in a tree, and definetly not worth even trying to "Poke with a stick"!

[cakadu]

Actually, now that you mention squirrels Bombay, how many of you are noticing that they've got squirrels where they've never seen them before?

We've noticed several here at our place and up until this year we've never seen them here before. Some of our neighbors say they have them too.

The squirrels' chattering in the trees drives our Jack Russell absolutely mad. I suppose it will give her something to do now that the gophers have gone away.

[bombay_43]

Actually, with 18 cats in our yard, a squirrel is a rarity here! I know they can be real pests, but I wouldn't mind having a few around the yard.

Our neighbor has problems with squirrels eating holes into their wooden grainaries. Never had to deal with them as a problem myself.

We found we did not have near the gophers this year that we usually have. We do have a permanent badger as an occupant on our pasture though. He takes care of the ones that the neighboring kids didn't shoot.

Our biggest problem this year appears to be foxes and coyotes, and due to our spring feeding program, I am sure they probably grew extra large litters that were exceptionally healthy!

The past few years, our MD has paid out $10 per coyote in order to help control them. I think our local "cull cow program" which came into place after the added rendering truck costs, has undone any good the MD tried to accomplish.

The fact of the matter is, those of us who can no longer own guns due to legislation, have to catch and club-to-death the coyotes in order to receive our $10.00!

Farming sure is a lot easier than being a "hunter"!