Camouflage is one of the best ways prey animals try to keep themselves safe, but this video proves that sometimes that’s not nearly enough.
Snowshoe hares are hands down one of the cutest animals on the planet. Who doesn’t like looking at these adorable all-white bunnies, I mean come on now…
Snowshoe hares aren’t pure white all year though. In the summer, their hide is a typical rabbit brown but when the weather gets colder, it changes to white to blend in with the coming snow.
This keeps them relatively safe from predators, like lynx, but there’s another creature that seeks out these hares as their food of choice.
Fishers.
I had never heard of this animal before and assumed everything that looked like this would be a wolverine of some sort, but fishers are a type of carnivorous weasel, very similar to otters.
Although they can eat an omnivorous diet, their preferred meal are hares, specifically snowshoe hares.
While driving down a snow covered road in Saskatchewan, Canada, some people got to see a fisher hunt play out right before their eyes and captured the moment on video for all of us to see.
Starting way off in the distance, we see a snowshoe hare running for its life as a hungry fisher closes the distance. Despite a few zings and a couple zags, the hare was overmatched out in the open and the fisher was able to grab ahold of it just 20 feet or so in front of the car.
Naturally, those inside the vehicle were impressed.
“He’s gonna get him, oh! Holy sh*t he got him.
Awesome… Wow. Holy sh*t.”
Yeah, that about sums it up.
Natureismetal reposted the video and shared the below details on the fisher.
“Despite their name, these small carnivorous land otters rarely eat fish. While they are omnivorous, the snowshoe hare is their dining option of choice, their “before anyone else” of menu selections. Fishers are also known as one of the only wild animals to successfully prey upon porcupines without catching a mouthful of quills.
Their secret? Fishers are roughly the same height as the North American porcupine. While other predators must attack from the top down and face the brunt of their natural fortifications, fishers can attack the porcupines face first – one of the only spots on the porcupine without quills.”
A land otter that can take out porcupines without getting a face full of quills? That is one bad dude.
New life goal, see one of these guys in action, because they seem extraordinarily impressive.
