A Message from New Hampshire Fish & Game

Do you have fisher, fox, or coyote roaming your neighborhood and going after your animals?

The best thing to do is to keep your cat inside, especially at night, which is when these predatory animals are most active. Fisher, fox and coyote are all species located throughout New Hampshire that prey upon small animals, including squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits -- as well as domestic cats, very small dogs, or livestock such as chickens. When your pets or livestock are roaming outside, they are leaving their scent wherever they go. This is what attracts these predators. If you feel you must let your cat out, you may want to consider being outside with it, since fisher, fox and coyote keep their distance from humans. If you have a small dog, be outside when it is outside. If you have livestock, such as chickens, keep them in a pen instead of letting them roam. You can contact New Hampshrie Fish and Game Wildlife Control Operators to remove the fisher, fox or coyote, but be forewarned -- as long as your cat, dog or livestock is allowed to roam, other predators may be attracted in.

Do you think that you have found an orphaned fawn or other animal?

Please leave young animals alone. Mothers often leave their young by themselves. A female deer (doe) will only return to the fawn to feed and then will leave it. When a fawn is born, it has almost no scent on it, a fact that reduces the chance of attracting predators. Its instinct is to lie down in an area and barely move until the doe returns to feed it. The doe has scent that could attract predators to the area; therefore, once the fawn is fed, she will leave the area until it is feeding time again. The doe will only go to the fawn if she believes it is safe. If you're there, it may not come back to the fawn. Therefore, if you should happen upon a fawn, you should leave it alone. It is not unusual for a doe to leave the fawn for several hours, especially if there is a lot of human or other activity going on.