FISHER FEMALE F033 AND HER 2 KITS PLAYING Female F033 was released in January of 2009 and gave birth to at least 2 kits in March or April. She is the third female that we have dcoumented having kits so far in 2009.
We offer streaming video files
in Windows Media format.
FIRST DOCUMENTED REPRODUCTION BY REINTRODUCED FISHERS IN OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK. [See Photos]
Fishers disappeared from Washington sometime in the mid 1900s due to over-trapping and loss of habitat. Efforts to reintroduced fishers to Olympic National Park on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula began in January of 2008. Since 2008, 49 fishers have been reintroduced to Olympic National Park, however reproduction by a reintroduced female had not yet been documented, until now. A sequence of photographs shows radio-collared female fisher F007 climbing a suspected den snag, climbing down the snag and carrying kits in her mouth (on 4 occasions), and taking kits to a new location. Females commonly move their kits to new den sites when the kits become more mobile. Hopefully this is the first of many litters of fisher kits to be born in Olympic National Park.
FISHER RELEASE VIDEOS Video footage of 6 individual fisher releases
was recorded by Olympic National Park (videos 1-6) and Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife (videos 7 and 8) videographers.
We offer streaming video files
in Windows Media format.
Photo
Gallery Note:Click
images to enlarge.
Project partners and cooperators share the load as they haul
2 female fishers in their travel boxes to their release site
near Boulder Creek in the Elwha Drainage, 2 March, 2008. Credit:
National Park Service.
Radio-collared female fisher bolts out of her travel box as
she heads for cover near Boulder Creek, March 2, 2008. Credit:
Jeff Lewis, WDFW.
Prior to being released, fishers are chemically immobilized
and fitted with a radio-collar. Credit: Jeff Lewis, WDFW.
Two fishers were backpacked two miles up the Whiskey Bend Trail
in the Elwha Valley before bring released, January 28, 2008. Credit: National Park Service.
Female fisher taking her first step into Olympic National Park,
January 28, 2008. Credit: Paul Bannick.
Olympic National Park Biologist, Patti Happe, Mitch Lewis and
Cokie Smith let loose a big male fisher at the Happy Lake Trailhead
in the Elwha Drainage, March 2, 2008. Credit: Coke Smith.
This adult male fisher was one of three released at the Altair
Campground in the Elwha Valley on January 28, 2008. Credit:
Seattle Times.
An adult male fisher (M005) picking up speed as he departs Altair
Campground, Olympic National Park, January 28, 2008. Credit:
Seattle Times.
A subadult male leaps from his travel box into the snowy terrain
along Hurricane Ridge Road, Olympic National Park, January 28,
2008. Credit: National Park Service.
FISHER FEMALE F033 AND HER 2 KITS PLAYING
