Officials said they have noticed a growing number of complaints from Capital District residents about an unusual animal scurrying in their yards and through their trees.
Some have thought the animal was black panther, but New York State Department of Environmental Conservation pathologist Ward Stone said the likelihood of black panthers in the area is extremely unlikely. Instead, he said, the animal being described is most likely a fisher, a medium-sized weasel-like animal.
`They tend to shy away from people as far as I know,` said Ken Champagne, a Latham resident who said he is sure a fisher killed his pet bunnies and ripped their bodies apart. `If you’re a cat or a rabbit or a chipmunk or a squirrel, you’re dead meat.`
Champagne and his family have raised a number of pet bunnies over the years. Champagne said he had housed the animals in an enclosure that would keep them safe from predators. He started out with a typical rabbit hutch, but the rabbits found a way to escape. Next, he built a small fence around the hutch with a little ramp and a doorway so that the bunnies could play in the fenced-off area.
`They decided to do their rabbit instinct, and they dug a hole in the ground,` he said.
While Champagne worked on coming up with ways to keep the bunnies from running away, the animals faced other risks, including neighborhood dogs and other wild animals.
Champagne eventually built a 10-by-20-foot enclosure for the bunnies.
But last week, that enclosure proved insufficient.
Champagne said his wife noticed an animal (which she later looked up on the Internet and determined to be a fisher) poking around the enclosure.
`She saw this fisher in the bunny enclosure,` Champagne said. `My wife went over to the bunny enclosure screaming at it, and it decided to take off and all was well for that day.`
After the incident, Champagne said he bought a roll of wire fencing and covered the cage completely.
Unfortunately, Champagne said, two days later, he and his wife awoke to find the bunnies had been killed.
`The fisher managed to come around the next night, and he dug under the hole,` he said.
Champagne notified Colonie Animal Control officials, who then told him more about fishers and where they have been spotted in the town.
Stone said fishers are not new to the area.
`They were here before us,` he said.
He said fishers were a native species in the Pine Bush area and parts of Colonie and Albany, and as people settled in the area, they cut down the trees that the fishers typically climb and hide in.
Stone said there was a movement to extricate the fisher from the area, but the animals began to pop up again in the Adirondacks about 30 years ago. He also said now they are reproducing and once again populating the area.
`They’ve greatly expanded their range,` he said. `Forty or 50 years ago it would be extremely rare that any would be seen in the area.` Now, he estimated that there are a few hundred.
Stone described them as having long, dark tails and short ears.
On a typical basis, fishers would not come near people, Stone said, however, should a fisher be acting abnormal and staying particularly close to people, people should be wary of rabies.
Stone said people should be happy that these animals have decided to live among us.
`It’s nice that we’re able to share the earth with a wide variety of life,` he said. `The animal to worry the most about is us. We are the most dangerous animals on the planet, including to ourselves.`
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