Meet Our Rhode Island Fishers!

We were able to capture and tag 56 individual fisher over the course of our 3-year study. Each animal is fit with a GPS collar that allows us to learn from their day-to-day movements and understand how fisher are navigating Rhode Island! All fisher were captured, handled, and released on-site by our trained team of professionals ethically and under the proper permits and IACUC protocols.

​Once each fisher fully recovered from their sedation, they were free to go about their business - see our release videos below and descriptions to get to know our Rhode Island furry neighbors!

F01 is a juvenile female and the very first fisher we have captured. We caught her and her sibling on our trail cams multiple times during the summer, so it was awesome to see her grow up into the healthy, young fisher she is! She has a tiny white blaze on her chest ,and was not shy to show off for TV.

M01 (Linus) is also a juvenile, and is the first male we've collared. For a juvenile, he's packing some weight at 4.5kg! M01 visited our traps one weekend when we had them out of service, where he helped himself to the fleece blanket we left in the trap - which promptly gave him the label as the blanket thief (shout out to Chris Ganoe for the great name of Linus!). He liked to sit flat on his bum in the recovery kennel and stretch his front paws out wide like he was lounging in a La-Z-Boy.

F02 (Lucy) is a subadult female with a very peppy personality. If you compare her more pointy head shape to the more round and robust head of M02, you can see the distinct difference between males and females.

M02 is one big handsome man, weighing in at 5.3kg (11.6lbs). He was the calmest individual and really just wanted to continue snuggling into the warm blankets in the kennel. 

F03 (Sandy) is our first snow capture of the 2021 season. She is the smallest fisher we've caught, but by far the most stunning! It is not super common for fisher in the northeastern U.S. to have such blonde hair in the winter months, but this little lady was totally rocking it. 

​While we don't have a release video of M03, I hope you enjoy seeing his coat shining in the sun as he bounds away to freedom! This photo is curtesy of Claudia Cooper. Her husband, Fred Cooper helped us by catching this subadult male for the project.

F04 (Layla) is our heaviest juvenile female weighing in at 2.37kg. She was super healthy and has a great set of chompers.

F05 (Queenie) is our very first adult female. She is also an expecting mother! So far, she has been quite elusive and hard to track.

F06 (Margeori) is another pregnant adult female. Her name is a combination of "ma" for mother, "r" for research on the ground "geo" in Rhode Island "ri". Thanks to Heidi Ganoe for the thoughtful and clever spelling. Margeori was one of the more talkative fishers we've caught.

F07 (Lola) ​is our third pregnant female of 2021, however she is a first-time momma! We are super excited to see how she does raising her first kits this spring and establishing her territory as a new adult.

​F08 is a pregnant adult female who enjoys hardcore parkour. She has gorgeous white markings under her armpits and on her groin. Upon release, she launched herself off a tree trunk to rapidly change direction! ​

M04 (Lobstah) is our biggest male at 6.4 kg, and he still had some room to grow! He was caught near the coast and is teaching us a lot about how east coast fishers navigate some densely populated areas.

F09 (Church) left us standing there shaking our heads. We believe she is Sandy's mother, and she was pregnant with another set of kits when we captured her. However, she managed to wriggle out of her collar before we even released her - extremely poor collar fitting on our part.

M05 (Snoopy) had a strange look to him with his long nose and sheepish personality making Snoopy seem like a well-fitting name. 

M06 (Woodstock), as mentioned above, this juvenile male was caught on the same day about 100m from Snoopy - thus the pair's names go hand in hand. Unfortunately, we don't have a release video of Woodstock.

The third capture of the day landed us processing a juvenile female, F10 (Rosalita). 'Lita, Lola, and Layla all were caught in the same pair of traps, suggesting 'Lita and Layla might be Lola's kits from the previous year. We won't know for sure until DNA tests come back, but the lovely ladies sure have a little pocket of heaven in the state. 

M07 (Dominick) joins the ranks as our last juvenile male of 2021. We are excited to see how he manages to secure his place on the map since his range is currently sandwiched between two big males.

F11 (Toph) is an old, pregnant female with the sweetest demeanor. Toph has been through a lot, with an old injury rendering her blind in her left eye. Even still, she manages to catch prey, maintain an extremely healthy weight, and raise her kits all on her own. 

M08 (Clint), is the oldest fisher anyone on our project has ever had in hand. He was missing quite a few teeth (including a molar!) and his canines were ground to stumps. We can only imagine how big he was in his prime. "Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy." - Josey Wales (The Outlaw, played by Clint Eastwood)

F12 (Ozzy), the final female of the 2021 season. Ozzy did not get a fancy collar, but we were able to tag her and collect critical data and samples. 

M09 (Clyde) is the final adult male of the season weighing in just below Clint at 5.3 kg. He was caught on a cold, rainy day and seemed very thankful for the warm blankets and dry crate.

We kicked the 2022 season off with an adult female who we named Betty (F13) after Betty White. She's one of our largest females, weighing in at 2.8 kg.  Thank you for being a friend!

F14 (Meatloaf) is the first juvenile female of the 2022 season, weighing in at just 2.25 kg. She still has some growing to do!

The third female of 2022 is F15 (Peaches). Peaches is a subadult female who has made her territory in a very urban location. She is going to teach us a lot about what our urban fishers are up to.

Our first male of the 2022 season is M10 (Jerry), named by one of our partners at the Burrillville Conservation Commission. He is a subadult male.

F16 (Fink) is our first confirmed pregnant adult female of 2022. Judging by her teeth, she is our oldest female this year, but weighed in at just 2.25 kg. She is named by Dr. Kadambari Devarajan. 

F17 (Patty), another adult female, was caught up near Black Hut Management Area.

F18 (Lemons) was more sweet than sour! She's a pregnant female who just wanted to stay wrapped up in the blankets all afternoon. After some coaxing, she found her way to freedom.

Caught in the Primrose area of the state, F19 (Primrose) was give her namesake by recently retired furbearer biologist, Charles Brown of the RI DEM Fish and Wildlife.

Our first big male of 2022 was ready to rock 'n' roll! M11 (Bruce) was caught in the same area as Patty, and he was born to run! 

Caught at the same location as Betty, it only seemed fitting to give a shout out to the Golden Girls. F20 (Blanche) was getting all the attention from a male the night she was caught in the trap!

A ladies man, M12 (Swayze) was caught the day after we caught Blanche in the same trap she was in, so we are pretty sure he was the one visiting her the night before! What a stud!

Another male for 2022, meet M13 (Bowie). Bowie was a very calm and relaxed fisher who just liked to sit and listen. 

After visiting the trap twice before on days we had them closed due to weather, we finally caught this big male on day three, which made Beetlejuice (M14) a very fitting name! Sadly, Beetlejuice was a victim of illegal take in the state and was found shot in May.

This year was riddled with ice storms, and this particular day was no exception and the humans weren't the only ones sliding on the ice! A scraggly looking young male, M15 (Fester) is our first encounter with mange, you can see the hair loss on his tail. Sarcoptic mange is caused by burrowing mites which irritate the skin and cause infection and excessive scratching.  

This beautiful juvenile female fisher will forever hold a special place in my heart. I named her Bernadette (F21) after my grandfather, Bernie, who passed away the day before. This was my last day trapping with the crew for the season and she could not have been a more perfect little fisher. She is also one of the most beautiful females we caught this season with blonde coloration.

Our last female of the 2022 season , F22 (Connie), was a record-breaker weighing in at 2.95kgs! 

M16 (Zeke), another adult male, weighed in at 4.9kgs and is estimated to be 1-2 years old.

The last fisher of the 2022 season was a very speedy male, M17 (Marty). Marty definitely could have used a trip to the dentist with two broken canines and very well worn chompers.

Our third and final season started off, just like the other two, with a female! Meet the first female of 2023, F23 (Janey). We believe she will be turning 2 in March and is a gorgeous little lady!

F24 (Maya) was caught on January 24th and is a rambunctious female. She was parkouring all around the kennel, letting us know she was ready to run to freedom. Our veterinarian, Lisa, is credited with the naming of F24 after her own daughter.

The first male of 2023 is this young fisher, M18 (Elvis). Elvis has some big feet for his age and body size - perfect for swinging and jiving to some rock 'n roll!

"Hey you guys!!" Chunk (M19) is the second largest fisher we've ever caught, weighing in at 6.28 kgs. We had gotten him on camera a this site throughout the fall and were very happy to finally catch him this winter!

Elaine (F25) is the 25th female we've caught and we captured her on Jan 25 - pretty neat. She is an adult breeding female and will go on to have some kits in mid-March.

M20 (Newman) was caught at the same location as Elaine, three days after she was caught. Newman is an adult male who had some of the biggest ears we've recorded.

Kramer (M21) was caught across the street from Newman and Elaine and was a wild and crazy male! He did not stop bouncing around the kennel and practically busted through the door on release.

Sticking with the theme of the area, meet Puddy (M22). Puddy is a very calm, laidback juvenile male who seemed very disinterested in us while in recovery. He also had really large paws, so we anticipate he has quite a lot of growing to do!

F26 (Padme) is a distinguished adult female who is pregnant with at least one kit. She has beautiful streaks of white hairs down the outside of her thighs and her paws.

Caught on the same day as Padme, Leia (F27) is a little older than Padme with a lot more spunk. A male visited her while she was caught in the trap and she told him off in her own way! 

The male that visited Leia, yeah he ended up coming back around two days later to see if she had calmed down and got caught in the same trap. Han (M23) is a handsome male who we estimate is at least 2 years old.

Moving back down to southern RI, M24 (Kevin) stopped by. He faked us out a couple times where we thought he was just going to wake up on us while we were processing him, but then went right back to sleep. "Me feel good. Body strong. Sleep big last night."

F28 (Linda) is the heaviest female we've ever caught, weighing in at 3.1kgs (6.8lbs)! She was pregnant with 3 kits when we caught her and like the weasel she is, she managed to slip her collar 3 days after we released her. Such a stinker.

"We're takin' you on a road rockin' trip down to Flavortown!" Meet Guy (M26) Fisheri, an adult male who's blonde hair and spunky attitude seemed to fit his namesake. 

Yet another pregnant female, Olive (F29), was caught on a rainy day. We believe she is only pregnant with one kit and she surprised us by waking up quite quickly from sedation!

The last day of trapping for the project, we ended up getting a double capture on a beautiful spring day. The first capture of the day was the last female fisher captured for the project, Poppy (F30). Poppy had the largest chest girth of any female, and she is also a mom-to-be!

The final fisher captured for the Rhode Island Fisher Study is a subadult male who we named Quint (M26) after the captain on Jaws who famously crushes a can of Narragansett. We released him as the sun was going down and it was a fitting end to a fantastic project. "Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies...."