‘A Needle in a Haystack’: Trail Cam Films Rare Fisher in Pennsylvania

Bill Powers compares checking trail cameras to opening presents on Christmas morning. That certainly is the case when people set their cameras up in remote areas, then come to check on them months later only to find footage of a rare animal. One of Powers’s trail cams in Murrysville, Pennsylvania captured a fisher, an elusive weasel-like carnivore earlier this summer.

Powers recently shared a couple of photos of the fisher on his business Facebook page (he founded PixCams). One photo shows a funny closeup shot of the animal sniffing the trail cam. Another photo is a perfect shot of the small animal—it’s almost like the fisher is posing for the camera.

“Yesterday we discovered that one of our cameras picked up a fisher back in July,” Powers wrote in his Facebook post from last week. “This is a extremely rare animal to be see in Murrysville, PA – where it was captured.”

Historically, fishers lived abundantly throughout the state, but deforestation in the 19th century hurt the fisher population. Reintroduction programs in the region have boosted fishers’ numbers in Pennsylvania and adjacent states, but the animal is still rare to see.

See a fisher on a Pennsylvania trail cam here:

Source: https://outdoors.com/a-needle-in-a-haystack-trail-cam-films-rare-fisher-in-pennsylvania/