In addition to my friend the Moose, who had an eerie presence throughout my hike as it was muddy terrain and her hooves were following me throughout my two days on the trail, there was a very special, rare spirit animal on this trip: the Fisher. On Day two of my hike, it was lightly snowing the whole day. I saw some movement ahead on the trail, close to a big blowdown of trees with lots of great den areas for animals. Then I saw it – like a big, fat cat with the fur of a small bear. It darted left, disappeared and then darted right again, across the trail into one of those dens. What was it? Identified by my father, Henry Zygadlo, after the hike – it was the elusive Fisher.

The Fisher is a small, carnivorous mammal native to North America. It is a member of the mustelid family (commonly referred to as the weasel family), and is in the monospecific genus Pekania. It is a forest-dwelling creature whose range covers much of the boreal forest in Canada to the northern United States.

Although an agile climber, it spends most of its time on the forest floor, where it prefers to forage around fallen trees. An omnivore, the fisher feeds on a wide variety of small animals and occasionally on fruits and mushrooms. It prefers the snowshoe hare and is one of the few animals able to prey successfully on porcupines. Despite its common name, the fisher rarely eats fish. The name is instead related to the word “fitch”, meaning a European polecat. Fishers have few predators besides humans. They have been trapped since the 18th century for their fur.

Source of information: Wikipedia