Pictured in an enclosure at the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops, this fisher is the park's newest permanent resident.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Facebook/ BC Wildlife Park
March 24, 2025 - 4:00 AM
The newest permanent resident at the BC Wildlife Park is a fisher named Buck that is currently off public display while it gets settled in to its new home.
It's one of three kits that were brought into the care of the park in June of last year.
The other two kits were successfully released four months ago into the same habitat range they were found in, according the BC Wildlife Park Facebook page.
“For a few days they stayed in a small, camouflaged habitat in the woods where they had access to food and water to help them transition,” a February post reads. “The male fisher was the first to step back into the wild, followed by the female a couple of days later.”
Buck is remaining in permanent care due to a congenital jaw abnormality that has his upper jaw and nose deviated to one side which puts him at greater risk in the wild.
A fisher called Buck is pictured in an enclosure at the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Facebook/ BC Wildlife Park
In order to protect the fisher population, the park doesn’t want the abnormality to be bred further into the population.
The kits were brought into the care of the park after researchers doing a study on fisher reproduction in Lac La Hache discovered the mother fisher they were tracking with a transmitter fell prey to another animal.
The orphaned kits were too young to survive on their own. A recovery team felled the nursing tree they were sheltering in and brought the trio into the care of the park’s Fawcett Family Wildlife Health Center on June. 8, 2024.
The fisher is a member of the weasel family that lives in boreal and temperate forests in all provinces and territories in Canada with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
The critters have long slender bodies and bushy tails, and eat snowshoe hares, squirrels and small mammals. They mate in spring and have babies in large cavities of trees the following year.
An orphaned fisher is released into the wild in an undisclosed location after recovering at the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Facebook/ BC Wildlife Park
While most fisher populations in the country are stable, the fishers are vulnerable to habitat loss from human disturbance.
The BC Wildlife Park is a non-profit that has operated in Kamloops since 1965, and is home to roughly 200 animals and 65 different native species, most of which were rescued.
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A fisher peeks out of a temporary enclosure during a release back into the wild after recovering at the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Facebook/ BC Wildlife Park
Orphaned fisher kits are pictured in care at the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops in June, 2024.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Facebook/ BC Wildlife Park
An orphaned fisher kit is pictured at the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Facebook/ BC Wildlife Park
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