Dec. 15 (UPI) — Cleveland Metroparks announced a fisher — an animal related to weasels and ferrets — has been caught on camera in a city wildlife area for the first time in over a century.
Cleveland Metroparks, a system of nature preserves across the Cleveland area, posted wildlife camera footage to social media showing the fisher recorded on Metroparks land in Cuyahoga County earlier this year.
The Ohio Division of Wildlife said the footage marks the first confirmed fisher sighting in the county since the species was extirpated from the area in the mid-1800s.
“This is tremendously exciting, as this is yet another extirpated native Ohio mammal species to be documented for the first time in Cleveland Metroparks,” Metroparks officials wrote on social media.
“The return of fishers and other extirpated species like otters, bobcats and trumpeter swans are a result of conservation efforts and emphasize the importance of our healthy forests, wetlands, waterways and natural areas in Cleveland Metroparks.
