Overview
- A Cleveland Metroparks trail camera recorded the medium-sized native mammal earlier in 2025, and the Ohio Department of Wildlife verified the footage as the county’s first record in more than a century.
- Cleveland Metroparks management coordinator Andy Burmesch identified the animal from the video.
- ODNR lists fishers as a Species of Special Interest after the species was extirpated from most of Ohio by the mid-1800s due to unregulated harvest and habitat loss.
- More than 40 fisher sightings have been confirmed across northeast Ohio, with about 26 documented in the past three years, according to ODNR.
- Park officials called the detection “tremendously exciting” and posted the clip this week, highlighting recent documentation of returning native wildlife such as otters, bobcats and trumpeter swans.