Over the past few weeks, we have been getting more and more photos of females moving kits to new dens!
To date, we have seen a total of 17 kits from 9 individuals (8 of these had two kits, and 1 had only one kit). When the last update went up, we had seen kits from 5 of the female fishers we are tracking. Of the remaining 4 denning females, 3 were native born fishers (accounting for 5 kits total), and 1 was a translocated animal (accounting for 2 kits).
It’s enjoyable to me to see the growth of the kits over time. They sure do get big in a hurry, and it is somewhat comical to see mom trying to pick up and carry a kit that is nearly half her size! With the last couple of dens that were found in June, we’ve seen that the kits are starting to become mobile, being able to move up and down the den tree on their own instead of carried around by mom.
Below is a slideshow of some of the kits we’ve seen since the last update. It should run in chronological order, so you can get a feel for how fast these young fishers are growing.
Northern Sierra Fisher Reintroduction 