Weather Forecast


The fisher is an elusive animal

Email Sign up for Breaking News Alerts
outdoors Bemidji,Minnesota 56619
Bemidji Pioneer
(218) 333-9819 customer support
The fisher is an elusive animal
Bemidji Minnesota P.O. Box 455 56619

On a lazy summer afternoon a few years ago while I was strolling through a jack pine woodland, a large furry animal leapt from a thickly limbed nearby pine. The dark form hit the ground in a loud thud, and was immediately running as fast as it could in the opposite direction I was heading.


I had just surprised a slumbering fisher. And though the tired fellow provided me just a fleeting glimpse, I was thrilled for having observed a rare sight. While Minnesota does indeed harbor plenty of fishers, few people ever see one. In fact, some folks don't even know they're around.


The fisher has a curious name. There are only a few records in existence of a fisher actually observed eating or catching fish. Undoubtedly, an opportunistic creature that will take advantage of most any available food and prey, fishers were nonetheless named in reference to fishes. That said, these highly intelligent and swift hunters of the forest are better known at finding and killing forest dwelling, terrestrial prey.


Undeniably marten-like in appearance and habits, the fisher is much larger than its smaller cousin the pine marten. Both species are arboreal weasels, that is, tree-loving weasel-like mammals. And both species are known to hunt similar prey such as red squirrels, mice and voles, rabbits and hares and birds. However, the two species are not believed to be competitors.


Fishers accomplish this by first being fast, but also by being extremely cunning. Porcupines, which are well armed with a coat of quills that can inflict serious harm to would-be predators, are creatures known for their defense strategies, not their ability to outrun or outsmart their enemies.

When confronted, a porcupine will often turn its rear toward the aggressor, puff out its quills and rely on its protective armor -- or a well-placed slap of its heavily quilled tail across the snout or body of its attacker -- in order to repel it. But what the fisher will do to counter the porcupine's defenses is to repeatedly attack the facial portion of a porcupine until the animal is disoriented or wounded badly enough in order to quickly and safely kill the porcupine without causing undue injury to itself.


Another unique characteristic of fishers, indeed, found in all members of the family, are its odor producing scent glands. Fishers have two anal scent glands that produce a musky odor, though not as strong as some of the other family members or closely related mammals. Mink produce stronger odors than fishers do from their glands, and skunks, of course, even more so than both mink and fisher.

Ranging mostly in forested lands, especially in mixed deciduous-coniferous forests throughout Minnesota's northern third, fishers are also found in other not-so-typical habitats. I have seen fisher tracks in the snow in far northwestern Kittson County, as well as observing a few fishers bounding along creek bottoms in western Marshall and Polk counties. They also occupy suitable habitats in central Minnesota.

Fishers are distinctive and interesting animals that few people observe in the wild. Trapped for their valuable fur during the state's closely regulated fisher trapping season, this large member of the weasel family continues to thrive while remaining virtually unseen. Once nearly extirpated from the state because of deforestation and unregulated trapping, this mysterious Minnesota mammal is abundant once again as we get out and enjoy the great outdoors.



Pioneer staff reports