I was out with a group of fellow trackers last weekend, and we came upon an unusual trail. There was a groove several inches wide running through the snow, and what seemed at first to be disorganized tracks next to the groove. We saw spots of blood in the groove. It looked like the trail of a predator carrying a prey item, and we spread out to investigate. I backtracked, wondering if I’d be able to find how it originated, and it didn’t take long before I came to the scene shown in the photo below.
A wider view, shown in the next photo, shows the rabbit tracks coming in from the upper right at an easy pace, making a turn to the right, and ending near the base of the shrub. The predator’s tracks (hidden behind the branches in the upper part of the photo) showed leaps of varying length moving in a linear path toward the shrub. Just before it passed beneath the leaning branches the animal made a few short leaps, then turned right to make the kill. The rabbit tracks didn’t show any evasion behavior, and the predator didn’t seem to be in a hurry as it approached the shrub. These details suggest that it was a chance encounter rather than a pursuit or ambush. The rabbit either didn’t realize the predator was near until it was too late, or froze when it detected danger.
The trail leading away from the kill site was easy to follow: a deep groove with tracks along one side.
Most of the tracks were indistinct, but there were a few that were clear enough to reveal that the predator was a fisher. There’s a fairly good one in the center of the next photo. I suspect that this was a female fisher, for two reasons. The tracks shown in the preceding photo are in a loping pattern, but their arrangement suggests a labored gait rather than the effortless lope we usually see in fishers. And the groove is quite deep, indicating that the body of the rabbit was not held very high off the snow. A male fisher is large enough to carry a rabbit easily, but a smaller female would have more trouble.
The trail proceeded through the woods in a generally straight direction. Spots of blood appeared every once in a while.
There were several places where the fisher put the rabbit down and either rested or repositioned it.
Finally I saw the feeding site at the base of a pole-sized sapling, shown in the next photo.
A closer shot shows plenty of fur, some entrails, and lots of blood. One hind foot lay at a distance from the main deposit of remains, but other than that I saw no bones or body parts.
I wondered why there were there no bones or body parts left at the feeding site. The condition of the tracks at the kill site and along the trail suggested that the fisher killed the rabbit early in the morning, so there would have been time for scavengers to work over the remains before we arrived in the afternoon. There were lots of coyote and raven tracks around the remains, so they were probably responsible for removing much of what the fisher didn’t consume. I also wondered why the predator carried its prize for so long before stopping to eat it. Something made the fisher feel unsafe, and it may have been the presence of coyotes in the area. We’ll never know for sure. But what’s a tracking outing without an unanswered question?
We don’t often find stories of predator-prey encounters recorded so completely. The fisher was in the right place at the right time, and so were we.
Nice find and investigation. And so true- what is a tracking expedition without an unanswered question.
If a female, which makes sense, when do they give birth? If not yet, the same scenario in another month might have had the trail go to the den tree.
Thanks for sharing
Thank you, trackologist ethologist ecologist detective Linda!
What a great description of the tracking experience! Thank you 😊
This is awesome, Linda.
I was just out with a group myself, and we came across a very similar situation with a trail that looked like a Mink grabbing a Cottontail. The Mink was on the move while the Cottontail appeared to be still under a Honeysuckle. The Mink just loped up, looked like a bit of a tussle (a fairly round impression in the snow littered with bits of Cottontail fur) and then the Mink 2×2 loped away dragging the Cottontail across a frozen river, down under the snow, below some logs, over some other logs, above the snow, and then finally down into a subnivean tunnel and out again, but we could not follow due to time restraints.
We saw no blood throughout it all, but maybe four or five instances of hair.
Thank you for posting your encounter on the trail. It helps to think of other Mustelid dynamics with Cottontails.
Thanks for this narrative, analysis, and vivid photos. What a story. I was in the GIAC hike you led recently. Still processing the information/insights you gave. Our final find, the circle of feathers where a grouse was eaten by a hawk, was quite amazing, and this story of rabbit and fisher through tracker eyes is equally so.
As usual great photos, great detective work, and great writing so that I learn from your experience. Thank you for sharing Linda.
Great story and pictures. I love your newsletters. I don’t have fishers where I live so learning through stories like this is fantastic. Thanks again!