Fisher Facts

Slideshow

The fisher (Martes pennanti) is a member of the weasel family, similar to the marten.

Fast Facts

Length: 3 feet (including 15 inch tail).
Weight: 12 lbs (males); 8 lbs (females).
Lifespan: About 7 years.
A fisher has a long, slim body with short legs, rounded ears, and a bushy tail. Fishers are larger and darker than martens and have thick fur. Fishers are agile and swift and are also excellent climbers.

Diet

Fishers eat snowshoe hares, rabbits, rodents and birds, and are one of the few specialized predators of porcupines. Fishers are effective hunters, but are also known to eat insects, nuts, and berries when prey is not available. Despite their name, they do not hunt fish.

Did You Know?

Despite their name, fishers do not hunt or eat fish!

Fishers are also known to eat insects, nuts, and berries when prey is not available.

Population

Fishers are common in the Northeast and Midwest, but rare in the Northern Rockies and Northwest, where they are one of the rarest carnivores.

Range

The fisher is found only in North America. Historically, it ranged the northern forests of Canada and the United States as well as forests in the Appalachian, Rocky and Pacific Coast Mountains. Today, fishers are found only in parts of their historic range. In the U.S., they exist in portions of the Appalachian Mountains from New England south to Tennessee; northern Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan’s upper peninsula; northern Idaho and western Montana; and three small West Coast populations in southwestern Oregon, northwestern California, and the southern Sierra Nevada. Reintroductions have led to their reoccupation of former habitats in Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Nova Scotia, Vermont, West Virginia, Maine, Manitoba, Minnesota, New York, Ontario and Tennessee. See a fisher range map >>

Behavior

Fishers prefer large areas of dense mature coniferous or mixed forest and are solitary animals. They are mainly nocturnal, but may be active during the day. They travel many miles along ridges in search of prey, seeking shelter in hollow trees, logs, rock crevices, and dens of other animals.

Reproduction
Mating Season: April.
Gestation: Egg implantation is delayed till February or March of the next year, following which is a 30-day gestation period.
Litter Size: 1-4 kits.
The kits remain with their mother until the fall.

Climate Change and Other Threats

Over-harvesting for pelts and loss of forest habitat due to logging and road building has significantly reduced and fragmented the fisher's range.

Climate change could increase the frequency of fires throughout the fisher’s range, removing the older, cavity-bearing trees they need for denning.

Defenders at Work

Defenders Magazine

Read "Quest for a Forest Phantom" to learn more about this elusive animal.

In both the Northern Rockies and their West Coast range, Defenders is working to secure adequate federal protections for fishers and their habitats, actively influencing policies and decisions affecting them—such as trapping in Montana, or logging on private lands in California—and preparing for changes to fisher habitat caused by climate change. Learn more about Defenders' work to protect this elusive carnivore >>

Reasons For Hope

Defenders of Wildlife, with the Tennessee-based Extirpated Species Foundation and the Wildlife Resources Agency, reintroduced the fisher to the Catoosa Wildlife Area in eastern Tennessee in October of 2001 and October 2002. Read more >>

Legal Status/Protection

Endangered Species Act (ESA): West coast fisher populations are candidates for protection under the Federal Endangered Species Act. The northern Rocky Mountain fisher populations are now under consideration for ESA protections as well, and a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected in 2011.
Fisher populations on the west coast and in the northern Rockies are considered a sensitive species by the U.S. Forest Service.
Learn more about legal status and protection of fishers >>