Furbearer Research

[AB 98]

On Monday, March 25th I was traveling south of Thunder Bay in Neebing township. I was able to get a close up look at a fischer on the ground.

The animal was in view for about 5 minutes so it wasn't a fleeting glimpse, and the distance was less then 20 meters. The fur around the animal's neck was disturbed by what appeared to be a collar. Is this a result of an MNR or university (grad student) study, or was the animal lucky enough to break free of a snare?

I'm just curious to know if there are any studies going on in that area. The animal didn't appear to be any worse for the wear. Other than the roughed up fur, it was nice to see something other than an Otter or Martin in the area.

iceman

[Guest MNR]

Neither the MNR, Lakehead University or Confederation College is currently conducting research into fisher. We have contacted the University of Minnesota and are waiting for a response from them.

Judging by how far marten have been noted to travel, this could be a fisher from Minnesota. They seem to have a good population there. Neck radio collars for marten and fisher are highly visible and at a distance of 20 m, there should have been no doubt. If there is doubt, there probably was no collar. In some radio collaring studies, collars are constructed to fall off after a certain time period. If the collar had just fallen off then the fisher's neck region would still show signs of fur disturbance.

However, it is doubtful that a fisher could get out of a snare once it is around its neck area. With the modern advances in snaring technology, conventional snare locks would have caused severe constriction of the neck. There is always that possibility that the fisher may have twisted and broke a illegally set snare.

The broken off snare would no doubt have caused difficulty in breathing. The fisher should have shown great stress and should have been preoccupied in trying to get the snare off, i.e. clawing or attending to the neck area. The observer did not mention this type of behaviour.