The weasel-family mammal known for hunting porcupines and called the fisher cat is the fisher.
The fisher (Pekania pennanti) is a carnivorous North American mustelid found mainly in boreal and mixed forests. Despite the nickname “fisher cat,” it is neither a cat nor a specialist fish-eater. The name probably reflects older European associations between the animal and polecat-like mammals, while “fisher” may also have been influenced by fur-trade terminology.
Fishers are agile, solitary hunters. They eat snowshoe hares, squirrels, birds, and other small animals, but they are especially notable because they are among the few predators that regularly kill porcupines. They attack repeatedly around the porcupine’s face, avoiding the quills, rather than flipping the animal over as a popular legend suggests.
Fishers were heavily trapped for their fur and disappeared from parts of the United States during the early twentieth century. Forest regrowth, hunting restrictions, and reintroduction programs helped many populations recover. They are related to martens but are now placed in their own genus, Pekania, following DNA-based taxonomic work.