Thanks to a pilot program funded in part by Raptors Are The Solution (RATS) through a grant from The Summerlee Foundation, Kayla Shively, SEFS grad student, and her colleagues have been analyzing fur from fishers to track anticoagulant rodenticide (AR). The team’s research is showing some promise that fur, not just blood samples, may provide a reliable, sensitive, and noninvasive way of detecting the poison.  AR’s have a short life in blood…they remain in hair until the hair is shed.

Fishers, who are part of the weasel family, are involved in a Washington state reintroduction program in order to increase their numbers. However, despite the reintroductions, the fisher species is still listed as endangered in the state. With survival rates low, researchers decided to look at AR poisoning as a potential risk.