What’s fierce, agile, and doesn’t hunt fish? A Fisher! The Fisher (Martes pennanti) is a medium-sized member of the weasel family that despite its name rarely eats fish. These carnivores can be found throughout temperate forests in North America, from the Northwest Territories in Canada down to Oregon. Fishers hunt mainly small to medium-sized mammals and will occasionally eat nuts and berries when they are available. Fishers are one of the few carnivores that can successfully hunt porcupines. In some areas they were even reintroduced to control porcupine populations!

While you many have not have heard of this animal before, they have made local headlines over the past year. After several decades of being absent from the North Cascades, they were finally brought back into this ecosystem last December! Read More from “The Return of the Fisher: The Reintroduction of a Carnivore in the North Cascades”