It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a fisher cat and it is not a feline. Males and females look similar but adult males are 90 to 120 cm long and weigh 3.5 to 6.0 kilograms. Adult females are 75 to 95 cm long and weigh 2.0 to 2.5 kg. The fur of the fisher varies seasonally, being denser and glossier in the winter. During the summer the color becomes more mottled as the fur goes through a moulting cycle. The fisher prefers to hunt in full forest. Although an agile climber it spends most of its time on the forest floor, where it prefers to forage around fallen trees. An omnivore, the fisher feeds on a wide variety of small animals and occasionally on fruits and mushrooms. It prefers the snowshoe hare and is one of the few animals able to prey successfully on porcupines. Despite its common name, the fisher rarely eats fish.
The reproductive cycle of the fisher lasts almost a year. Female fishers give birth to a litter of three or four kits in the spring. They nurse and care for their kits until late summer. When they are old enough to set out on their own. Females enter estrus shortly after giving birth and leave the den to find a mate. Implantation of the blastocyst is delayed until the following spring, when they give birth and the cycle is renewed.
Conservation and protection measures have allowed the species to rebound, but their current range is still reduced from its historic limits. In the 1920s, when pelt prices were high, some fur farmers attempted to raise fishers.
When pelt prices fell in the late 1940s, most fisher farming ended. While fishers usually avoid human contact, encroachments into forest habitats have resulted in some conflicts.
Skull diagram:
The Latin specific name pennanti honors Thomas Pennant who described the fisher in 1771. Buffon had first described the creature in 1765 calling it a pekan. Pennant examined the same specimen but called it a fisher. Other 18th-century scientists gave it similar names, such as Schreber who named it Mustela Canadensis who named it Mustela melanorhyncha.
The fisher was eventually placed in the genus Martes by Smith in 1843. In 2008, advances in DNA analysis allowed a more detailed study of the fisher's evolutionary history. The fisher and the Martes genera were determined to have descended from a common ancestor, but the fisher was distinct enough to put it in its own genera. It was decided to create the genus Pekania and reclassify the fisher as Pekania pennanti.
Fishers are a medium-sized mammal and comparable in size to the domestic cat. Their bodies are long, thin and low to the ground. The sexes have similar physical features, but they are sexually dimorphic in size with the male being much larger than the female. Males are 90 to 120 cm in length and weigh 3.5 to 6.0 kg.Females measure 75 to 95 cm and weigh 2.0 to 2.5 kg .The largest male fisher ever recorded weighed 9 kg.
The fisher's fur changes with the season and differs slightly between sexes. Males have coarser coats than females. In the early winter, the coats are dense and glossy, ranging from 30 mm on the chest to 70 mm (3 in) on the back. The color ranges from deep brown to black, although it appears to be much blacker in the winter when contrasted with white snow.
Hunting and diet:
Fishers are generalist predators. They are also known to supplement their diet with insects, nuts, berries and mushrooms. Since they are solitary hunters and their choice of prey is limited by their size. Analyses of stomach contents and scat have found evidence of birds, small mammals, and even deer. The latter two indicating that they are not averse to eating carrion. Fishers have been seen to feed on deer carcasses.
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