A rare, elusive creature has returned to Northeast Ohio, and there’s picture proof of its presence.
A fisher was spotted on a Cleveland Metroparks trail camera earlier this month. This is the first confirmed fisher sighting in Cuyahoga County in nearly 200 years, and the first fisher sighting at Cleveland Metroparks since its establishment in 1917.
Fishers were considered to be extinct in Ohio by 1883 due, in large part, to habitat loss caused by humans.
In a Dec. 13 Instagram post, video courtesy of Ben PIazza of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, it shows the creature scrambling across the screen and checking out its surroundings.
“This is tremendously exciting, as this is yet another extirpated native Ohio mammal species to be documented for the first time in Cleveland Metroparks,” the post reads.
“The return of fishers and other extirpated species like otters, bobcats and trumpeter swans are a result of conservation efforts and emphasize the importance of our healthy forests, wetlands, waterways and natural areas in Cleveland Metroparks.”
The Ohio Division of Wildlife confirmed the sighting and its historic nature.
“They are listed as ‘Species of Special Interest’ by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources,” Cleveland Metroparks stated. “According to the Ohio Division of Wildlife, it’s estimated that the fisher was extirpated in Ohio by the mid-1800s and the major causes were unregulated harvest and loss of habitat.”
Cleveland Metroparks wildlife ecologist Jonathon Cepek told CBS News that since the first Ohio sighting in 2013, there have been at least 40 other observations in multiple counties.
Although they are sometimes called fisher cats, they are not cats, and do not fish. Fishers are mammals related to river otters and weasels, and sometimes mistaken for minks, although they are larger.
Fishers have a weasel-like body, bushy tail, tapered muzzle, and low rounded ears. Adults grow to a length of 20 to 25 inches, excluding the 13 to 16.5-inch tail, and can weigh between 3 and 15 pounds. Males are larger and heavier than females.
Fishers hunt rodents and other animals, both in the trees and on the ground. Their diet also includes fruits and nuts.
According to the ODNR, there have been more than 40 confirmed fisher sightings across several northeast Ohio counties (Ashtabula, Columbiana, Geauga, Trumbull, Mahoning, Portage, Lake, Jefferson, Harrison, and Tuscarawas). Two-thirds of those — about 26 sightings — happened in the past three years.
The Akron Beacon Journal reported that a fisher found as roadkill in 2023 in Ashtabula County was confirmed to be pregnant in early 2024, per ODNR, confirmation that the animals are colonizing Ohio again, per ODNR.
In April 2024, another fisher was found as roadkill near Kent in Portage County, Ohio, the farthest west the animals had traveled into Ohio at that time. That fisher was the largest one collected in Ohio to date, weighing in at 13 pounds.