Rare Pacific fisher to receive protection

[ERIC]

Rare Pacific fisher to receive protection

Friday, March 6, 2009
http://www.theunion.com/article/2009030 ... protection

The California Fish and Game Commission voted this week to designate the Pacific fisher, a rare forest carnivore that preys on porcupines, a candidate for protection as a threatened or endangered species under the California Endangered Species Act.

The fisher once roamed from British Columbia to the southern Sierra Nevada. In California, the fisher is reduced to half of its historic range in two small populations — one in Northwestern California and one in the southern Sierra Nevada. Both populations are threatened by continued logging.

The fisher also is a candidate for federal protection.

Contrary to its name, the fisher does not eat fish. The name probably relates to a poor translation of the name for the European polecat, which is a relative of the fisher and is called the fitch ferret, fichet or fitche.

Rather than eat fish, the fisher has a diverse diet, preying on small mammals, snowshoe hares, porcupines, birds, carrion, fruit and truffles.