Nessie -

Indeed! This is a photo a friend of mine took in California of a fisher dumpster diving.

^^^^^^^...oh Boy ,!

That would be a crappy habitat !

White ....I bet my scent mound....pulled him in

I have absolutely no idea, Ken. The sagittal crest is for masseter muscle attachment, and the males have a much expanded list of prey items (over the females). Obviously they eat much larger prey (on the average). Could it also be that the female picks a birthing den that she can barely fit through, in an attempt to keep males from entering and killing the neonates? These are the only possibilities that come to mind. Let me think on that question a bit...

Jack

Good one !!!

Yeah I was wondering about that issue of fitting through a narrow space.

Also, I wonder whether the males make greater use of bones than the females do ?? Thus develop those masseters more than the girls do and the crest along with it
What about this........can you tell a male from a female YOY by the skull suture ??

OK thanks. So just a target of opportunity rather than actual predation.

I found no differences between the sexes in timing of suture closure. Obviously, the sutures (especially the nasals) are not cemented in the YOY age class, but it was the same for both sexes. Just based on total length and/or zygomatic width though, you could separate sexes.

Jack

Y'all are ovahthinking this way too much .

A girl loves a well muscled up man. A complete turn on. ...

I like this post Gulo! What bone is this in the picture?

I would think that there must be some relationship between den opening and zygomatic width. The female must "know" that relationship inherently/instinctively.

Can you determine sex ratios of previous litters from placental scars .....or are the neos just about the same size at birth ?

Same size at birth. No variation that I can detect in size of placental scars.
[quote=Jurassic Park][quote=Gulo]


Young-of-the-year animals can be determined by the growth plate.

JP The photograph is of the distal end of a couple of femurs.

There have been several cases of rabid fisher entering buildings and contact with people here.....talk about a wee bit of Public health paper work having being done...and multiple shots for people.
And regular fish landing nets have a 20 second life expectancy on capture.

Easiest furbearer to catch in my opinion.

Seem fearless and always cruising.

Neat animal.

Gotcha! Thanks!