Name: Pacific Fisher

(Martes pennanti pacifica)

Status: State Endangered (WA), State Species of Concern (ID), State Sensitive-Critical (OR), Federal Species of Concern

Listed: October 28, 1998

Description: Stocky, dark brown weasel with a long bushy tail

Threats: Habitat loss, depressed population size

Overview: Though never particularly abundant, the Pacific fisher historically could be found in most forested areas of Washington below 1800 m. Today, the fisher is considered to be one of Washington's rarest carnivores. The fisher prefers to nest in rotting logs or tree cavities and its highly variable diet includes mammals (such as shrews, squirrels, hares, muskrat, porcupine and beaver), birds, carrion and fruit. Fishers tend to be rather shy and solitary, generally avoiding large open areas. Radio-tagged individuals have been known to occupy a home range of up to 75 square kilometers. Due to these habitat specifications, the fisher is limited to extensive tracts of relatively undisturbed, late-successional forest. Intensive trapping and predator control efforts, as well as loss and alteration of habitat, in the 19th and early 20th centuries have pushed the fisher to near extirpation in Washington and Oregon, and succeeded in eliminating the fisher from Idaho. Although the harvest of fishers has been banned since 1934, their numbers have not recovered due to continued logging and development of the densely forested lands they inhabit. As a result of a well-documented and detailed petition written by the Sierra Biodiversity Institute in 1988, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service elevated the fisher to category 2 (the list of species to be carefully monitored for signs of endangerment) west of the High Plains States in 1989. Nine years later, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) moved to add the Pacific fisher to the state’s endangered species list. Due to the extremely low number of confirmed sightings throughout the past twenty years, WDFW has determined that it is unlikely that the current fisher population of Washington is viable, and a recovery program that includes reintroductions is recommended to prevent the extirpation of this species. Idaho's re-introduction efforts in the1960's met with success, and there is now a breeding population of fishers in the state. To learn more about the ecology and status of the elusive Pacific fisher, check out the WDFW’s final report from September 1998 @ http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/wlm/diversty/soc/status/fisher/fshrxsum.htm.

Click on maps to enlarge

WA Distribution: As can be seen from this map, scattered Pacific fisher sightings within Washington’s remaining forests have been documented over the past twenty years. Because of the secretive habits of the fisher, these “sightings” are mostly positively identified fisher tracks. Since 1990, however, only two occurrences of confirmed fisher tracks are known in Washington State—once inside Loomis Forest North and once in the Pasayten Wilderness.

ID Distribution: Idaho's population of fishers has been slowly increasing since the 1960's, when it was re-introduced to three north-central Idaho sites. Since then, fisher sightings have been documented throughout many of the forested portions of the state, as you can see from this sightings map.

OR Distribution: Although no map data is available for Oregon, fishers are thought to exist in the Crater Lake National Park and in the Coast Range. Only 6 fishers have been positively identified in the state.

Last updated October 11, 2001

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