180 



EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



so far as known at present, in the Warner Mountains, Modoc 

 County; south from Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak through- 

 out the main Sierra Nevada to Greenhorn Mountain in north 

 central Kern County. " It is found mainly at middle altitudes, 

 from 2,000 to 5,000 feet in northern California and 4,000 to 

 8,000 feet in the Mount Whitney region to the southward. At 

 the present time the fisher is found in the Sierra Nevada mainly 

 on the west side of the range. On the coast range it formerly 

 reached Marin County as the southward extension of its area 

 of distribution. Fishers are nowhere abundant in California, 

 and at best "it is unusual to find more than one or two to the 

 township" in suitable country. These authors believe "it is 

 doubtful if there is one fisher to each 100 square miles" of its 

 range in California, and in 1926 estimated the entire population 

 in the State at about 300. Forty years before 1909 they were 

 found all along the ridges of Mendocino County, but owing to 

 excessive trapping very few were then left. From 1920 to 1924 

 the annual catch dropped from 102 to 34, or a loss of 67 percent 

 in five years. This decrease has involved the entire State and 

 is not merely local. Since 1925 the fisher has received total 

 protection in the national parks of California. The authors 

 mentioned believe that a long-term closed season is much need- 



Fisher (Martes pennanti] 



