Newborn fishers sighted in Olympic National Park / VIDEO BELOW
Published 3:39 pm Thursday, May 28, 2009
PDN news sources
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Biologists today confirmed the first sightings of newborn fishers in Washington state since restoration of the state-endangered species began two years ago.
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Photographs downloaded from an automated camera placed deep
in Olympic National Park wilderness show a female fisher carrying four
kits down a large snag.
The female shown in the photograph is one of the first fishers reintroduced
to Olympic, released near Antelope Creek in the Elwha Valley
on Jan. 27, 2008 as part of a multi-partner recovery plan to restore the
once-native animal to its historical habitat.
The photographs, taken Saturday, clearly show the female carrying four
kits, one at a time, down a snag and out of the frame to an unknown
location. The camera and the den are located in a remote area of the park
southeast of Port Angeles.
“Finding fisher kits in Olympic National Park is a tremendously exciting
milestone in the fisher restoration process,” said Olympic National Park
Superintendent Karen Gustin.
“Locating the mother’s den tree was like
looking for a needle in a haystack, but after several weeks of careful
tracking and wilderness hiking, biologists were overjoyed to have
photographs of kits.”
Fishers, which are large, stocky members of the weasel family, usually give
birth in late March, using tree cavities as dens for one to four kits.
Females often use several den sites while raising kits, moving them to dens
closer to the ground as they become larger and more mobile.
