A trio of orphaned fisher kits are on their way to recovery thanks to the quick actions of a Thompson Rivers University graduate student.
That student was Shannon Werden, a TRU Master of Science graduate student, who has been studying and monitoring fishers for the past year with the Recovering Fisher Population project. Werden said she grew up with a love for animals and has been pursuing a wildlife biology degree for the last several years.
"This project kind of presented itself to me last year and I didn't know much about weasels at the time but the project sounded amazing. In the last year, I've really learned a lot about them and fell in love with them," Werden remarked.
Earlier this month on Friday, June 7 Werden was out in the field near Lac La Hache using radio telemetry to track a female fisher, named Gina, to her den. That morning Gina's signal abruptly gave off a mortality signal and she went to investigate.
Werden eventually found Gina's remains, a pile of intestines and her head, and theorized she must have been eaten by a lynx. Knowing that Gina gave birth to three fisher kits two months ago, Werden hurried to Gina's denning tree located 12 feet up a tall aspen tree. Based on footage from cameras set up around the den she determined Gina had left the kits 26 hours earlier and that they hadn't left in that time.
Werden reached out to a local biologist and one of her colleagues on the project Larry Davis who made his way out to the den and together they extended a camera on a telescopic pole up to the den's entrance. Two kits peered back at the camera confirming at least two were still alive.
Knowing they couldn't leave the kits unattended, Werden offered to climb up herself to retrieve the kits but Davis talked her down, due to the danger. Instead, they began reaching out to their colleagues including Sandra Frey, a carnivore conservation biologist, and Joanna Burgar, a carnivore conservation specialist, both with the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship who began calling potential arborists and wildlife rehabilitators to assist in a rescue.
"After a group effort and with the help of many fisher friends, Danger Tree Assessor / Faller Tom Alphonse was enlisted to rescue the fisher kits first thing the next morning," Davis said. "The BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops was aware of the situation and prepping to house up to three fisher kits."
On Saturday morning Davis, Werden, Alphonse and members of the Esk’etemc Land Guardians returned to the scene where it was determined the tree was too old and dead to safely climb. When fishers den Werden said they look for older and rotten trees that create hollows where they can keep their young safe from predators.
With climbing out of the option, they decided to instead gently fell the tree as it was already rotten and didn't have many years left in it. Davis and Werden agreed and after rigging up a bunch of ropes, felled and began to lower the tree.
"Thanks to the helping hands of everyone on site, the tree was felled and three healthy, uninjured kits were pulled from the hollow," Davis remarked.
Werden recalled the felling in a bit more detail noting that while initially they were able to slowly lower the tree, as it got closer to the ground it broke apart and fell the remaining distance. She said everyone rushed to the tree to look for the kits before hearing them squealing, which she remarked was akin to hearing a baby cry for the first time.
"The kits were gently placed in a moss-lined bin and given some food. Shannon raced them down to the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops where they were assessed by a veterinarian," Davis said.
The vet told them that, despite their ordeal, the kits weren't dehydrated and were healthy, if a bit skinny. After she returned home Werden recalled coming down from her adrenaline rush and being exhausted.
"As sad as I was at the start with Gina passing away, it felt like the best outcome. I was really happy that they were able to get saved and I was proud of myself and all of our team for doing things in such a quick manner," Werden remarked. "It was very much a community effort in saving them."
Now two weeks later Davis said the fisher kits are healthy and recovering, almost doubling in weight with the females weighing 800 grams and the two males weighing 1,300 grams. In the next few weeks, the park plans to move the kits to an outdoor enclosure where they'll have more opportunities to climb and explore.
Ultimately the goal will be to release these orphaned kits back in the wild this fall, Davis explained, when they would normally leave their mother and disperse out into their own territory.
Davis noted that over the last year and a half of monitoring fishers three of the seven adult females they've been tracking have died due to either predation or starvation. This year the average amount of kits per female is less than one, which is a concerning trend.
"This low reproductive output makes the successful reintroduction of the three orphaned kits even more important for the success of the Columbian fisher population," Davis remarked.
Werden explained that B.C. currently has two main Fisher populations, the Boreal and the Columbian populations. In the Columbian population, which the South Cariboo falls under, fishers tend to only have kits every second year which means there are less than 500 individuals thought to be left in the wild.
"It's super important to do all this research to understand their reproductive rates and how it's affected by habitat," Werden said. "They are a red-listed species and they're really important to keep on the landscape. Not a lot of people know about them and so I think just getting the word out about this species so people actually know about them and feel passionate in conserving them is a huge part of why we're doing this."