(Radio Iowa) – We’ve seen moose, bears and mountain lions wander into Iowa from other states, and now a smaller animal is on that list. Iowa D-N-R wildlife biologist Vince Evelsizer says the latest visitors are mammals called fishers. “We have seen a few more fishers in northeast Iowa. We’re trying to monitor their whereabouts or the prevalence with the trail cam survey and then a lot of feedback from private landowners and our own staff over there and in that part of the state,” he says. He says fishers are in the weasel family.
)”They’re kind of shaped like a big mink or a smaller otter. So they’re got fur, they’re typically a dark color. mostly a dark brown or blackish color and then kind of a silvery hair on their back and shoulders typically,” Evelsizer says. He says you can find them were there’s timber. “Fishers are a woodland dwelling mammal. They may or may not be near water,” he says, “they’re not a semi-aquatic mammal like the mink is or you know where minks spend a lot of time along the water bodies and things like that. Fishers typically are a carnivore that live and hunt in our woodlands.”
Evelsizer says the fisher incursion is small. “We don’t have a lot of fishers, it’s just notable that we’ve had, you know, anywhere from two to five confirmed sightings or reports of fishers in northeast Iowa at this time here just in 2026 alone,” he says. Evelsizer says the fishers are likely coming from southeast Minnesota or southwest Wisconsin. “Southeast Minnesota has seen a slight increase in their fisher population, and so it’s likely we’re getting some fishers bouncing into northeast Iowa from there,” he says. “So they’re dispersing naturally into northeast Iowa. And it’s also important to note that fishers were once native to Iowa, especially the eastern half of the state.”
Evelsizer says it’s interesting to see an animal show up in the state that were once natives here. He says they will continue following reports of the fishers to see how this develops.
