Fishers were trapped heavily across Oregon in the early 1900s, and native populations now survive mainly in isolated pockets of old-growth Cascades forest, a decline reflected in NatureServe’s S1, critically imperiled, rank here, far more precarious than the species’ secure G5 global status. Records near the Deschutes and Willamette National Forests trace the dense conifer cover and downed timber this forest specialist needs to den and hunt.
Records show two bumps, February and March, and again in October and November, with a complete gap across summer. That winter-and-fall pattern likely reflects breeding-season movement and easier tracking in snow, since fishers are large members of the weasel family and one of the few predators known to regularly kill porcupines.
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