Photographer captures fisher and other elusive animals creeping around same spot
A lynx, a fisher and weasels popping in and out of the snow were some of the wildlife captured by biologist and amateur photographer Arielle DeMerchant.
Over one week at the end of January, the 28-year-old wetland biologist videotaped wildlife rolling in the snow and creeping near a deer carcass she'd found in the woods.
Last week, she posted a compilation on Facebook that's been shared more than 500 times and reached 30,000 views.
DeMerchant used an ordinary trail camera, set up near the same spot in Scotch Lake, about 30 kilometres west of Fredericton, where she took a stand-out photo of a lynx in April of last year.
In the video, a red squirrel drops by, then a lynx, a few grey jays, short-tailed weasels, a fisher, a red fox and a snowshoe hare.
"It's probably not a great place for him to be hanging out because there's a lynx and weasel around," she said.
DeMerchant said she was most surprised to see the fisher — a mammal belonging to the weasel and skunk family — because the woods near Mactaquac didn't strike her as appropriate habitat for the animal.
"I'm glad that people are enjoying it," she said of the video's popularity. "We're seeing the animals that you don't see that often when you go out into the woods.
"Even the weasels — they're a pretty elusive animal."
She said she was "amazed by how all of those animals showed up in just over a week at the same site."
Playing all the videos back to back was a great way to compare the size of the animals, she said.
"It shows that the lynx, they're not huge cats when you compare the size of it with the snowshoe hare. ... It shows you how big those fisher are."
She left the setup completely unattended for that week because she said she's fascinated with wildlife and nature when humans aren't around.
"I just love it so much. I'm a biologist by career, and for me this is really getting out there and watching the wildlife and learning about them and then taking that knowledge and sharing it with people.
"There's nothing I enjoy more than doing that."
