![]() The dentition formula is: 3.1.4.1 2.1.4.2 Evolution Its close relative Mustela has just three. Members of the genus Pekania are distinguished by their four premolar teeth on the upper and lower jaws. It was decided to create the genus Pekania and reclassify the fisher as Pekania pennanti. The fisher and the genus Martes were determined to have descended from a common ancestor, but the fisher was distinct enough to put it in its own genus. In 2008, advances in DNA analysis allowed a more detailed study of the fisher's evolutionary history. The fisher was eventually placed in the genus Martes by Smith in 1843. Other 18th-century scientists gave it similar names, such as Schreber, who named it Mustela canadensis, and Boddaert, who named it Mustela melanorhyncha. Pennant examined the same specimen, but called it a fisher, unaware of Buffon's earlier description. Buffon had first described the creature in 1765, calling it a pekan. The Latin specific name pennanti honors Thomas Pennant, who described the fisher in 1771. James DeKay, as reported by John James Audubon and John Bachman, claimed the name "fisher" may have been attributed to the animal's "singular fondness for the fish used to bait traps", although this may have been local lore. In the French language, the pelt of a polecat is also called fiche or fichet. The name comes from colonial Dutch equivalent fisse or visse. The name is instead related to the word "fitch", meaning a European polecat ( Mustela putorius) or pelt thereof, due to the resemblance to that animal. Implantation of the blastocyst is delayed until the following spring, when they give birth and the cycle is renewed.ĭespite the name "fisher", the animal is not known to eat fish. Females enter estrus shortly after giving birth and leave the den to find a mate. They nurse and care for their kits until late summer, when they are old enough to set out on their own. Female fishers give birth to a litter of three or four kits in the spring. The reproductive cycle of the fisher lasts almost a year. Despite its common name, it rarely eats fish. It prefers the snowshoe hare and is one of the few animals able to prey successfully on porcupines. An omnivore, the fisher feeds on a wide variety of small animals and occasionally on fruits and mushrooms. Although an agile climber, it spends most of its time on the forest floor, where it prefers to forage around fallen trees. The fisher prefers to hunt in the full forest. During the summer, the color becomes more mottled, as the fur goes through a moulting cycle. The fur of the fisher varies seasonally, being denser and glossier in the winter. Male and female fishers look similar, but can be differentiated by size males being up to twice as large as the females. While fishers usually avoid human contact, encroachments into forest habitats have resulted in some conflicts. ![]() When pelt prices fell in the late 1940s, most fisher farming ended. However, their unusual delayed reproduction made breeding difficult. ![]() In the 1920s, when pelt prices were high, some fur farmers attempted to raise fishers. Conservation and protection measures have allowed the species to rebound, but their current range is still reduced from its historic limits. Their pelts were in such demand that they were extirpated from several parts of the United States in the early part of the 20th century. They have been trapped since the 18th century for their fur. įishers have few predators besides humans. Other Native American names for the fisher are Chipewyan thacho and Carrier chunihcho, both meaning "big marten", and Wabanaki uskool. Cree ocêk, Ojibwa ojiig) borrowed by fur traders. In some regions, the fisher is known as a pekan, derived from its name in the Abenaki language, or wejack, an Algonquian word (cf. The fisher is closely related to, but larger than, the American marten ( Martes americana) and Pacific marten ( Martes caurina). It is sometimes referred to as a fisher cat, although it is not a cat. It is a member of the mustelid family, and is in the monospecific genus Pekania. The fisher ( Pekania pennanti) is a carnivorous mammal native to North America, a forest-dwelling creature whose range covers much of the boreal forest in Canada to the northern United States.
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