Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
By 1806
Primary Source Reference:
"Walk through the Phil[adelphi]a Museum" (1805-1806), p. 23
Additional Source Text:
"This American Animal is but little known, some have called it a black-Fox. They principally live on Fish."
Notes:
Despite the name "fisher" (and Peale's account), the animal is not known to eat fish. The name is instead related to the word "fitch", meaning a European polecat (Mustela putorius) or pelt thereof, due to the resemblance to that animal. The name comes from the colonial Dutch equivalent fisse or visse. In the French language, the pelt of a polecat is also called fiche or fichet.
Richard Harlan, in Fauna Americana: Being a Description of the Mammiferous Animals Inhabiting North America (Philadelphia, 1825), pp. 65-67, identified this species as Mustela canadensis based on a specimen (No. 736) in the Philadelphia Museum / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3194400
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Peale's Common Name:
Fisher weasel
Peale's Scientific Name:
Libellina
Current Common Name:
Fisher
Current Scientific Name
Pekania pennanti
