Did I See a Pacific Fisher (Pekania Pennanti)?
UPDATE: as per some comments and most web search, it seems I was hallucinating, since neither a Pacific Fisher (Pekania Pennanti aka polecat) or Humboldt Marten is supposed to range into my area. If so, my hallucination was vivid and detailed and an excellent match for a Pacific Fisher.
I was hoping to report the sighting to an appropriate wildlife biologist, but I’ve not been able to find any contact.
At this point, I am now 90% certain that what I saw was a Pacific Fisher.
Similar in size to a domestic cat, fishers weigh between 2 and 5.5 kilograms (4 to 12 pounds) and are members of the mustelid family along with otter, mink, marten, wolverine, and badger. The fur of a fisher is very thick, soft, and shiny, has a distinct musky smell, and ranges in color from light blond to a rich, dark brown.
And per Wikipedia:
Recent studies, as well as anecdotal evidence, show that fishers have begun making inroads into suburban backyards, farmland, and periurban areas in several US states and eastern Canada...
Original post and comments below...
Riding my bike yesterday, I am pretty sure what I saw was the endangered Humbolt Marten.
A creature that in 30 years I have never before seen in my neighborhood.
Low-slung and the size of a house cat, it was not a bobcat, not a housecat, not a fox, not a coyote, not a mink, not an otter—that much was obvious. Its large/long fluffy tail was streamed out behind it and the tail seemed nearly as long as its body, and of fairly large diameter. Coloration orange/brown or similar. A very handsome animal and clearly a fast predator.
I was doing 20 mph downhill on my bike and being tailgated by a car, plus the animal was running at full tilt at 90° to me across the road. So I only got a second or two for a visual impression, but it was right in the middle of the lane for excellent size context, about 30 feet ahead of me.
The length seems right and the color description matches, but the animal I would have guessed at several kilos, so that seems off. OTOH, it looked relatively fluffy so it could have been much lighter than it looked and it was lightning fast. And if not a match, what would it have been?
Of the two subspecies that occur in California, the Humboldt marten is darker with richer golden tone overall and with less orange and yellow in the throat patch... It also has a smaller skull, and smaller and less crowded premolars and molars than the Sierra subspecies (Ibid.). One male Humboldt marten captured in mid-fall that had molted into winter pelage had brighter overall reddish brown coloration, dense fur on its underside, and dense fur around the pads of the feet...
Adult American martens weigh from 500-1400 grams and are 500-680 mm long (Buskirk and McDonald 1989). Sexual dimorphism is pronounced, with males being 20-40 percent larger than females.
And yet, it seems a stretch, since there are no known populations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Don C writes:
If it’s bigger than a marten, it’s probably a fisher. And of course, individuals vary / are juvenile.
A fisher does not seem any more likely than a marten, as per nps.gov:
...only two native populations survive in California, one near the California-Oregon border and one in the southern Sierra Nevada
...but the size and color are a good match. I saw what I saw, even if I am not supposed to see it here. I am now certain it was a Pacific Fisher—everything matches.
Zoe at wildtrack.org writes:
I have passed your observation on to a friend of ours who works on Fisher and Marten in California. She might be able to help. If she can't, we know a tracker community in CA who might. Next time if you can find a footprint, even after the animal has gone, we can run some diagnostics! Here's the protocol for taking footprint images: https://wildtrack.org/example-footprints/
DIGLLOYD: the above was a response to an email inquiry. There are no tracks to be found on a paved road. The animal was within 100 yards of a heavily wooded creek area. It is also a residential area but with large (1 acre) lots with lots of trees along the creek section and with good tree cover.
