An extremely rare member of the weasel family appears to be back in the southwestern Pennsylvania area after it was believed to be extinct.
An omnivore mammal called a fisher, was spotted on a camera set up on a log in Murrysville.
The camera from PixCams caught the fisher in this past July, but was not discovered until last week.
It is believed the fisher went extinct in our region in the 1800s due to over trapping for their pelts and their forest habitat being slowly eliminated.
Due to reintroduction programs, fisher populations have begun to grow over the past 30 years.
According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, Fisher populations are “increasing throughout southwestern, central and northern regions of the state, and fisher have become established even in some rural and suburban habitats once thought unsuitable for this adaptive forest carnivore.”
The PA Game Commission says the fisher is the second-largest member of the weasel family in PA after the river otter.
Learn more about the fisher and its characteristics here.