A wildlife camera in Cleveland Metroparks recorded a fisher in January 2025. When wildlife staff reviewed the footage, they found an animal missing from Cuyahoga County’s documented wildlife for generations.

Andy Burmesch, the park system’s wildlife management coordinator, identified the dark, bushy-tailed mammal. Ohio’s Division of Wildlife confirmed the county’s first record since fishers disappeared from the state in the 1800s. Cleveland Metroparks shared the discovery on December 13, 2025, bringing a quiet woodland encounter into public view.

The camera record came during a much longer recovery across northeastern Ohio. The state’s first modern record came in 2013, when a road-killed animal was found. By the end of 2024, the state’s monitoring report listed 56 confirmed observations across eight northeastern counties. Those records documented a species spreading into former territory, though they weren’t a census of individual animals.

In Cuyahoga County, the record came from wooded parkland around Cleveland. Conservation staff keep cameras watching there for animals visitors may never see.

Despite the familiar nickname “fisher cat,” a fisher is a member of the weasel family. Mink, martens and otters are its relatives. Its scientific name is Pekania pennanti, and its long torso, low stance and thick tail give it a silhouette quite different from a house cat’s.

Animal nicknames can send readers in opposite directions. The jaguarundi, an otter-like cat, really is a feline. The fisher’s cat nickname conceals a different family connection.

Fishers are substantial animals, especially the males. Pennsylvania’s Game Commission gives typical adult male weights of 7 to 15 pounds, compared with 4 to 9 pounds for females. A male can measure roughly three to four feet from nose to tail tip, with the tail making up about one-third of that length.

They hunt through trees as well as along the ground. In Pennsylvania, small mammals dominate: the Game Commission points to mice, squirrels and chipmunks as important prey. They also eat other small animals, fruit and fungi, and they’re capable of killing porcupines. Fish rarely feature in the diet of an animal called a fisher.

The comeback began beyond Ohio’s border

Ohio’s wildlife agency attributes the fisher’s disappearance to forest clearing and unregulated harvest. By the mid-1850s, it estimates, the species had been extirpated from the state. Fishers survived elsewhere in North America, but Ohio had lost both the animal and much of the woodland it needed.

Restoring populations in neighboring states eventually opened a route back. In 1969, West Virginia released 23 fishers brought from New Hampshire. Their descendants spread within West Virginia and into surrounding states, including southwestern Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania later undertook its own restoration project. Between 1994 and 1998, partners released 190 fishers at six sites in the state’s northern forests. Natural arrivals from neighboring populations also contributed to Pennsylvania’s recovery.

Ohio is now benefiting from that regional expansion. Its Division of Wildlife describes fishers recolonizing the state from growing populations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. That regional history provides context for the Cleveland detection, although the animal’s individual movements haven’t been traced.

A female fisher usually gives birth in a cavity well above the forest floor. Farther down, fallen timber adds structure to the ground where fishers forage. An older tree with a hollow and a trunk left to decay can both have a place in the animal’s life.

Pennsylvania’s experience offers some room for coexistence. Its Game Commission describes fishers established in some rural and suburban areas, as well as more extensive woodland. The agency says researchers still know too little about the animals’ response to divided forests and nearby development. Where fishers occur and how much disruption they can withstand remain separate questions.

Some of Ohio’s most revealing records have come from animals that didn’t survive. In February 2023, biologists collected two road-killed fishers in northeastern Ohio. Laboratory examination later showed that the female found in Ashtabula County had been pregnant.

Ohio announced that finding in February 2024 as potential evidence of reproduction. The female died before giving birth. Her pregnancy gave biologists reason to look for young, while leaving successful birth and survival to be documented.

The carcasses also put roads in the middle of the comeback story. Animals moving between woods can encounter traffic, a problem addressed elsewhere with wildlife crossings and fencing. For Ohio’s biologists, a reported road death supplies information about a species they’re still learning about.

Cleveland Metroparks placed the fisher alongside other returning native wildlife in its announcement. Wildlife ecologist Jon Cepek described increasing otter and bobcat activity in the park system, along with gains for reintroduced trumpeter swans. The park system credited conservation and emphasized the value of maintaining healthy natural areas around the city.

Its camera network makes those changes easier to detect. In December 2025, the system had about 200 wildlife cameras, according to Cepek’s interview with public-media reporter Zaria Johnson. Cameras can remain in place while wary animals move through, gathering observations without a person standing nearby.

“We don’t have cameras everywhere and they don’t see everything,” Cepek said. Keeping cameras at sites throughout the year, he explained, improves the chance that an animal will eventually pass one.

The Cuyahoga record established presence. Continued observations can help staff learn whether fishers return regularly, which parts of the landscape they use and whether young eventually appear. A single encounter leaves those questions open.

Ohio still treats the species cautiously. The Division of Wildlife’s June 2026 list places the fisher among its Species of Concern, a category that includes animals whose status needs attention or remains insufficiently understood. A county rediscovery is an encouraging step within a recovery that’s still being measured.

For the cameras left in Cleveland’s woods, the next revealing visitor could be another traveling adult, a familiar animal passing again or, eventually, young fishers. Each would answer a different question about whether this forest predator is finding a lasting home.

The images are for illustrative purposes only and do not depict the actual fisher, equipment or locations described in this story.