Species: Martes pennanti

Fisher
Species

    Articles:

    Fisher (Pekania pennanti)

    This article was originally published by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as part of its annual report Threatened and Endangered Wildlife in Washington.

    Fisher released on the Olympic Peninsula. Photo by Jessica Hoffman.
    Kingdom
    Animalia
    Phylum
    Craniata
    Class

    Mammalia

    Order

    Carnivora

    Family

    Mustelidae

    Genus

    Martes

    Classification
    Other Global Common Names
    pékan
    Informal Taxonomy
    Animals, Vertebrates - Mammals - Carnivores
    Formal Taxonomy
    Animalia - Craniata - Mammalia - Carnivora - Mustelidae - Martes - paraphyletic.
    Short General Description
    A fur-bearing mammal (fisher).
    Habitat Type Description
    Terrestrial
    Migration
    true - false - false - See Zielinski et al. (2004) for information on home range characteristics in California.
    Non-migrant
    true
    Locally Migrant
    false
    Food Comments
    Diet consists primarily of mammals (small rodents, shrews, squirrels, hares, muskrat, beaver, porcupine, raccoon, deer carrion); also birds, other small animals, carrion, and fruit.
    Reproduction Comments
    Reportedly breeds late February-April or March-May, peak in March (late March-April in Manitoba); females mate probably within days of giving birth. Gestation lasts l year, including an 11-month period before implantation. Litter averages about 3 throughout the range. Births occur primarily from March to mid-April (sometimes in February or May in some areas). Young are mobile by 8 weeks, weaned in 2.5-4 months; separation from the mother occurs in the fifth month, in late summer or early fall. In Maine, young are weaned from mid-May to early June, independent probably in late August or early September (Arthur and Krohn 1991). Sexually mature in 1-2 years; not all adult females breed in a given year. Apparently promiscuous breeding. Very few males live more than 4 years, and less than 10% of females live more than 4 years.
    Ecology Comments
    Solitary except during the breeding season. <br><br>Home range has been estimated at 10-800 sq km by snow tracking, 7-78 sq km by telemetry using minimum convex polygon model; generally the ranges of adults of the same sex do not overlap. In Maine, home ranges of females were stable between seasons and years, but males moved extensively in late winter and early spring and their ranges shifted between years. In New Hampshire, mean annual home range was about 15-25 sq km, with daily movements usually were 1.5-3.0 km. In southern Quebec, mean home range size was 5.4 sq km for females and 9.2 sq km for males (Garant and Crete 1997). Has been recorded moving 90 km in 3 days (see Nowak 1991). <br><br>Population density in favorable habitat has been estimated at up to about 1 per 3-11 sq km in summer, 1 per 8-20 sq km in winter (Arthur et al. 1989). In southern Quebec, density was estimated at about 3 individuals per 10 sq km; the high density was atrributed to the absence of trapping (Garant and Crete 1997).
    Length
    103
    Weight
    8200
    NatureServe Global Status Rank
    G5
    Global Status Last Reviewed
    2005-11-16
    Global Status Last Changed
    1997-09-25
    Conservation Status Map
    <img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.AB=S4&CA.BC=S2&CA.MB=S5&CA.NB=S5&CA.NT=S3&CA.NS=S2&CA.ON=S5&CA.QC=S5&CA.SK=S4&CA.YT=S3&US.CA=SNR&US.CT=S2&US.ID=S1&US.IL=SX&US.IN=SX&US.IA=SX&US.ME=S5&US.MD=S3&US.MA=S4&US.MI=S4&US.MN=SNR&US.MT=S3&US.NH=S5&US.NJ=SNR&US.NY=S4&US.NC=SX&US.ND=S2&US.OH=SX&US.OR=S2&US.PA=S3&US.RI=S1&US.TN=S1&US.VT=S5&US.VA=S1&US.WA=SH&US.WV=S3&US.WI=S5&US.WY=S1" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
    Global Range
    H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - Fishers range from Quebec, the Maritime Provinces, and New England west across boreal Canada to southeastern Alaska, south in the western mountains to Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and California, and formerly south to Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Recently the species has expanded its range in the eastern United States, and it has been reintroduced in areas from which it was extirpated, including West Virginia, with some of the latter individuals wandering into Virginia (Handley 1991). The species is relatively abundant in the eastern provinces of Canada, with low populations in British Columbia (USFWS, Federal Register, 1 March 1996).
    Global Range Code
    H
    Global Range Description
    >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)
    ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.103714