Watch these small but ferocious fishers make a meal out of roadkill

Apr. 18—Fishers in Maine have a reputation for being small, but ferocious predators.

They also tend to be pretty elusive and don't spend a lot of time hanging around for people to watch them for long periods of time.

That's why today's trail camera videos are so enjoyable to watch. The inimitable Allie Ladd of Byron gives us an up-close look at fishers that are trying to take advantage of some bait left to get them on video.

Fishers are members of the weasel family, as are marten, weasel, mink and otter, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife website.

In the first video segment, a fisher appears to get not much more than a mouthful of feathers and a piece of birch bark as it attempts to pull some meat off a chicken carcass tethered to a tree.

The second clip provides a closer look at a fisher as it tries to get some meat off a piece of roadkill deer. Note the gorgeous fur and the formidable retractable claws, the latter of which enable fishers to climb trees and hunt prey successfully.

"Small in size, but good thing for us that he's not the size of a bear," Ladd notes of the fisher's tenacity in getting something to eat.

Thanks to Allie for providing such compelling footage of Maine wildlife for us all to see!

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