At Fort Clatsop, George Drouillard, the expedition's interpreter, saw a fisher "but it escaped from him among the fallen timber." These medium-size carnivores are very agile, able both to climb trees and to pursue their prey down holes in the ground. It's not unusual that Drouillard saw the fisher in the forest-they like habitat with a high, closed canopy; it' s unusual that he saw the fisher at all. They are notoriously shy of people.

Pacific fisher (subspecies) is a federal species of concern.