Fun Fact: Fisher Recovery in Minnesota
December 13, 2009
Did you know that fishers were once a very rare furbearer in the state of Minnesota? Here’s a clip from an old Minnesota newspaper back in 1969:
40 years ago (1969)
The long arm of chance reached into the life of Pine River trapper Walter Norman recently. He made trapper’s dream of catching what appeared to be a 15-pound black weasel, but it was a rare fisher, not often seen in Minnesota.
Here’s some info on the fisher population from the Minnesota DNR:
Fishers were nearly extinct in Minnesota by the early 1900s. But the population has grown steadily since then. Since the late 1970s, the population has remained at more than 10,000, enough to support a regulated trapping harvest of about 2,000 each year.
My husband saw a fisher down the road from where we live in Embden Maine. We have never seen one before around here. This picture that you have one this site helped us to show our childeren what they look like and what to be careful of. Thank you
Thanks Sara! Fishers are quite common in Maine and I used to trap them when I lived in northern Maine. People don’t see them very often because they are usually only active at night, but they’re out there.
I think I saw two fishers this morning south of Gravenhurst, Ontario. One came pretty close to me before they both ran away.