The uploader of the video describes the fox as a “silver fox.” This isn’t correct at all. This is a gray fox, genus Urocyon, which is not a true fox at all. It is actually the most genetically distinct species of dog still existence today. It last shared a common ancestor with the rest of the dog family 9 to 10 million years ago. Gray foxes are known for their tree-climbing behavior, which is one of their hallmarks. Indeed, another name for this fox is the “tree-climbing fox” or “tree fox.”
Silver foxes are actually a phase of red fox. When I first watched the video, I was expecting to see a silver phase red fox, but the shrieks very quickly told me that this uploader had misidentified the species. This is pretty common. Silver and normal phase red foxes do interbreed, but you might as well try to cross a red fox with a hamster than try to cross red and gray foxes.
A fisher is a large North American marten. North American martens are not closely related to Eurasian martens, but they look similar to them. In fact, both North American marten species are more closely related to wolverines than to pine and beech martens which they superficially resemble. The term “fisher” comes from a mistranslation of the French word for polecat, which is fichet. French trappers sold fisher pelts as polecat pelts, and the name just sort of got stuck with them. They don’t fish at all. They hunt porcupines and squirrels and have been known to take white-tailed deer fawns on occasion.
The fisher’s range is currently expanding. They are now becoming more and more common in the Eastern US, and in my state, where they were extirpated, they are now making a strong comeback.
They live in pretty much the same habitat as gray foxes and hunt a lot of the same prey, so I have actually been thinking how these two species would interact. My guess is they would be hot competitors, and this video suggests that I might be right. I don’t know if there are any studies on fisher and gray fox interactions, but as fishers expand their range deeper in the gray fox’s core range, there will be lots of interactions like this one.
The “lesser” carnivora don’t get much attention as the big ones do, but their behavior and ecology are every bit as fascinating.
