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AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
And now a trip to one of the parks around Cleveland, Ohio. Underneath a canopy of trees, an elusive animal scampers into the view of a local wildlife camera. It's a fisher, a mammal once native to the area that was thought to be gone from the state, but yesterday, Cleveland Metro Parks announced its first confirmed sighting of the animal in well over 100 years. Fishers are about the size of a large cat and described as reclusive and even mysterious. Think of a weasel or an otter. Fishers are in the same family. They have dark fur with splotches of white, pointy snouts and long bushy tails.
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KATIE DENNISON: They've got very long tails, so they can be from 2 feet long to 4 feet long, but about half of that length is their tail.
RASCOE: That's Katie Dennison, a biologist for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. She spoke to ABC's News 5 Cleveland about the fishers last year after another one was spotted in a more remote county. In fact, there have been dozens of reported sightings in the states over the past decade, but this is the first verified sighting of the animals so close to Cleveland since the 1800s. The fishers' reappearance is raising hopes that other native species can make a comeback, too.
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PAUL MECKLING: The bald eagles have come back. The wild turkeys have come back. Just a lot of things have come returned back to normal, and the fishers are one of them.
RASCOE: That's Ohio resident Paul Meckling (ph) speaking to the same local station in 2024. So if you live in Cleveland or the surrounding counties, keep an eye out for these furry critters as they make their way back to the neighborhood.
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