0:02
Mustelids are a family of about 70 small carnivorous mammals with a wide range of adaptations and behaviors.
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It includes minks, Martens, ferrets, stoats, Wolverines, and many more.
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They range in size from about 7 inches long, like small weasels to giant river otters in the Amazon that can reach over 5 1/2 feet long.
0:36
I've traveled to Seattle, WA to check out one of Woodland Park Zoo's most fascinating exhibits.
0:45
These playful river otters are mustylates and have adapted to an aquatic lifestyle, as our original host, Marlin Perkins first showed audiences way back in 1969.
0:57
Welcome to Mutual of Omaha's wild Kingdom.
1:01
I don't suppose any animal is more devoted to just plain fun than an Otter like this one.
1:08
But there's more to being an Otter than plain.
1:14
This is such a unique member of the mustelid family.
1:16
But something that a lot of the species have in common is this ferociousness.
1:21
You know, they are predators.
1:22
They're carnivores.
1:24
Are these river otters?
1:25
I mean, they have the cutest faces.
1:26
Are they also kind of ferocious?
1:29
They certainly can be.
1:30
So they're definitely not an animal that if you see them out in their natural habitat, you want to approach.
1:34
Keeping your distance is always going to be your best bet because I would not run to run into those draws.
1:39
You know, I have this sense that the mustard family is full of these interesting animals, but they're all smaller predators, right?
1:46
They're smaller carnivores, so they're not necessarily at the top of the food.
1:49
They themselves might have predators out in nature.
1:53
So perhaps that's why that they're a little on the feisty side.
1:56
Yeah.
1:56
I mean, whatever keeps you alive out there, right?
1:59
It is.
1:59
It's survival every day.
2:00
Definitely.
2:02
Some musty lids like our otters have mastered life in the water, while others have taken to the trees.
2:10
They seem elusive to us today.
2:13
But fishers, the otters, forest dwelling cousins, were once widely distributed across North America's Woodlands.
2:21
And like otters, they're also fierce predators with a wide range of diet.
2:25
50 to 70% of their diet is meat, and then the other, like 50 to 30% is usually things like fungus, mushrooms, insects, things that aren't considered meat.
2:36
Amazingly, they're also specialists and animals, like porcupines.
2:40
The quills don't stick in them.
2:42
So fishers will get porcupine quills in them, say, like a dog does.
2:45
But then those quills, they'll fall out over time, and they won't leave an infection.
2:50
But their dense, dark fur became prized by trappers for centuries, and threats like logging destroyed their habitats.
2:59
Because of that, they nearly vanished from the landscape entirely, becoming locally extinct in parts of North America in the early 20th century.
3:12
That's why earlier this year, just over the border from Washington state and British Columbia, Canada, biologist Shannon Warden was studying and monitoring a female Fisher named Gina.
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And her litter of three new kits is part of a recovery Fisher population project.
3:30
Shannon, you are the person that discovered these three kittens and save them.
3:34
Yeah.
3:34
I was tracking the female in the morning just to see her whereabouts.
3:38
Scientists implant trackers in threatened fissures like Gina.
3:42
The device emits signals that allow biologists to follow their movements using handheld antennas.
3:49
The first two signals were regular signals.
3:51
All was normal.
3:52
The third one was a mortality signal.
3:54
When these animals with transmitters in them are stationary for 24 hours, it switches to a mortality signal.
4:00
I go and investigate and do find that she was predated upon.
4:03
And because I've been extensively tracking them, because it was standing season, I immediately switched gears into rescue kit mode.
4:11
She was about 400 meters from the Denning tree, which is where she keeps the kits.
4:15
And so me and Larry Davis went in, and we went in with the telescopic peeper pole, which goes up about 45 feet.
4:22
We checked inside the cavity, and then a few little faces looked back at us.
4:25
And so we're like, OK, like, these kits are still alive.
4:32
This is it.
4:33
So right here in this beautiful spot.
4:36
If we discovered the fissures, yeah.
4:38
Why is the tree been cut?
4:39
Because it has a lot of decay in it.
4:42
And as Fisher Denning trees tend to have, the professional tree fallers came in here and they're like, we can't climb it.
4:47
And said that this tree probably didn't have much time left in it.
4:51
And so they said that those three kits were worth falling.
4:55
The tree.
4:56
This is where the Fisher roots were living.
4:58
Yeah.
4:58
This was the bottom of it.
4:59
Cozy and warm and the sawdust complete protection.
5:04
This will be a great home for a young Fisher.
