Mystery Animal on Game Camera

[j44ke]

This showed up on the game camera when we checked it this afternoon.

Horrible quality (probably from rain on lens) - 1:44AM Friday morning 04/24 - eastern NY just over the border from Great Barrington - hemlock woods near stream











I have no idea, so looking forward to best guesses!

[Saab2000]

That’s a chupacabra.

[j44ke]

That’s a chupacabra.

Not the easter bunny on a post-holiday bender then?

[cny rider]

Fisher or mink?

[sk_tle]

I would have said a marten, a mink or a fisher. Hard to really figure out the exact size.

[alexstar]

That’s a chupacabra.

Came here to say this but I'll guess pine marten.

[Diablo de Acero]

It looks like a turkey or pheasant maybe.

[caleb]

How far from water? I think it'd be pretty unusual to see a mink up way away from the water.

I'd guess pine martin, or some sort of black tree weasel.

[caleb]

It looks like a turkey or pheasant maybe.

Oh yeah, good call. Small hen turkey.

[guido]

Mongoose?

[j44ke]

It looks like a turkey or pheasant maybe.

That was my first thought, but both almost non-functional in the dark - like chickens - so they really aren't nocturnal. But possible I guess.

The water is a stream about 10' to the left of where the critter is, and about 30 yards in the direction the animal is traveling, the stream flows out of a collapsed beaver pond that makes about a 10 acre wetlands.

We are right next to the South Taconics, and they have this strange connection to habitat further north. Like moose. And Fisher is possible. Mink I hadn't considered.

Marten would be Adirondacks though.

Too small for an otter. Maybe a beaver? But the tail isn't right, though it is hard to tell.

A skunk?

On second thought: fox perhaps, but they're mostly crepuscular, not dead-of-night 1:44 am nocturnal.

Good idea. We have both red and gray fox. This would be more the size of a gray fox.

[robin3mj]

Looks like a mink. Too far south for fisher.

[marley]

Looks like a mink. Too far south for fisher.

We had a Fisher cat in the woods , only 15 miles north of Boston

[j44ke]

We had a Fisher cat in the woods , only 15 miles north of Boston

They are on the increase evidently, partly because of re-introduction programs and partly because porcupine populations surged when fisher populations declined due to over-trapping. Fishers are definitely incredible hunters, but they get a lot of blame for the work of raccoons on chicken houses.

Also we are on the western slope of the South Taconics, and as I mentioned, the S. Taconics have a more northern climate than the surrounding lowlands. Last winter we found moose tracks over the ridge at Jug End Trail in Massachusetts, and this winter I found a set of tracks crossing the iced-over wetlands while I was snowshoeing.

[Mabouya]

Jorn, you need one of two possible additions to your game camera set up:

[j44ke]

That is actually a really good idea. Thanks!

[djg21]

Not too far south for Fishers. I’m not far away, in Saratoga County, NY, and Fishers are common here.

[j44ke]

Not too far south for Fishers. I’m not far away, in Saratoga County, NY, and Fishers are common here.

One of the people at the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program studies mammals and has been tracking fisher numbers by way of sightings and road-kill. He says they have been increasing steadily in this area over the last 10 years, starting from almost zero to now being an effective presence in the predator population.

This thread started because I thought maybe I caught a fisher on our game camera, but I am not convinced it wasn't a mink (which I have seen near our property) or a house cat (there are enough houses around that this is possible.) I spend most of my time in the woods looking for marks. I also look for porcupines after being told that in winter they get into the upper limbs of some deciduous trees for a snack & you could walk right underneath and never know they were there.

[ides1056]

Porcupine poop looks like Deer poop with one exception: it's light, not dark roast. They are especially fond of Hemlock trees.

[darkmother]

My humble contribution to this thread:

I watched a very heathy coyote trot across the front yard of multiple houses near to where I live. At noon no less.


It made me happy for some reason.