Cute creature spotted again after 100 years in ‘exciting’ sighting

A fisher was spotted by trail cameras at the Cleveland Metroparks in Ohio, the United States. This was the first sighting of a medium-sized fisher in more than 100 years.

Cleveland Metroparks shared the footage on social media saying: “This is tremendously exciting!” Fishers are native to North America’s forests and disappeared from the state of Ohio in the mid-1800s. They have never been spotted in the UK or any other European country, and have been found only in Canada and the US.

Cleveland Metroparks said: “The Ohio Division of Wildlife confirmed that this sighting in Cleveland Metroparks is the first record in Cuyahoga County since the species originally disappeared in the 1800s.

“They are listed as ‘Species of Special Interest’ by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and 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.

“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 return of fishers and other extirpated species like otters, bobcats and trumpeter swans are a result of conservation efforts and emphasise the importance of our healthy forests, wetlands, waterways and natural areas in Cleveland Metroparks.”

Although they are often referred to as “fisher cats”, they’re not felines but members of the weasel family.

According to Scenic Hudson, fishers are solitary creatures and “despite their name, fishers rarely eat fish. It’s one of the few things not on their diet, which consists of fruit, reptiles and amphibians, birds and bird eggs, mushrooms, squirrels and other mammals”.