CLEVELAND, Ohio — Wildlife cameras in Cleveland Metroparks captured a sight that has not been recorded in Cuyahoga County in more than a century: a fisherman, a once-vanished native mammal long thought to have disappeared from Ohio, the park system announced on Instagram Saturday.
Metroparks officials said the elusive animal was discovered earlier this year by Wildlife Management Coordinator Andy Burmesch, who reviewed the footage and notified state experts. The Ohio Wildlife Department later confirmed the sighting, confirming it was the first documented fisherman in the county since the species disappeared in the 1800s.
Cleveland Metroparks says that by the mid-1800s, Ohio’s fishermen (medium-sized forest mammals related to weasels and otters) had been wiped out due to unregulated trapping and widespread habitat destruction. They are currently listed as a “Species of Special Interest” by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
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Metroparks leaders called the reappearance “very exciting,” noting that it marks the natural return of another native species that was once extinct in Ohio to the area.
Read the original article on cleveland.com.
