Fisher Project

Martes pennanti

The goals of the fisher project are to look at the: home range size of males and females, find which habitat fishers prefer, and look at food habits of recolonizing fisher in the Central Forest Region of Wisconsin.

By trapping and tracking fishers we can find useful information to help us understand how this once extirpated predator has redistributed itself in what was thought to be uninhabitable areas. Open farmland and marshes were considered to be unsuitable for fishers in the 1970's, and it was believed that this species was a specialist to dense canopy coniferous forests. The fisher project has the opportunity to look at how this apparently adaptive animal is adjusting to a new situation. A new landscape brings new prey items; and less of its favorite prey item, the porcupine.

Using a study done by Dick Thiel on porcupine populations inside Sandhill Wildlife Area, we can determine the effect that fishers have on porcupines. It was once thought that fishers would devastate a porcupine population, and therefore keep the porcupines from damaging trees.

By trapping and radioing a female fisher this past year, we have the opportunity to extend our research methods and use telemetry to follow a fisher closely. So far we have over three months of data on the fisher's movements and habitat choices. Hopefully we can continue trapping fishers in the future and learn more about where they spend most of their time.