The Labor Day weekend found me and the family heading up to the Stoneboro Fair for the final kick off of summer events.

Although I have a few friends that have livestock exhibits we mainly like to explore the vendors and displays while sampling some fair foods.

One of the regular visits that we make while at the fair is the Mercer County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs and PA Game Commission exhibit.

Part of the exhibit is an animal identification tour in which you receive an answer sheet to write down what you think a taxidermist mounted animal display might be. It can be tricky as the animals on display represent quite a variety of wildlife that can be found in Pennsylvania.

Everything from bears to bats and owls to weasels can be part of the identification game.

I can honestly report that a few of the animals on display are just about gimmes and any resident of our commonwealth should recognize the critter.

Raccoons, opossums and groundhogs are just about everywhere on any given day and unfortunately for them are often highway casualties.

It’s when they throw in the bird population and the seldom seen mammals that people go all over the map in their answers.

I happened to be following such a group of fair goers that not only wrote down what they thought was the answer but to my amusement shared their thoughts out loud.

My face is an open book when you want to know what I’m thinking.

When I hear misinformation spewing forth I’m just dying to report that; we don’t have wolverines in Pennsylvania!

The misidentification of a hawk species or the uncommon songbirds might be forgiven but not the wolverine answer.

The correct answer was the fisher, part of the Weasel family-Mustelidae.

They did recognize that it was part of the species in the weasel family which is a large grouping of animals in our region but not one of our far northern cousins.

I can also understand why they might not recognize a fisher as they are seldom seen except by some fortunate individuals or trappers who might want to target them.

In my travels I have only seen them in person twice and I wasn’t sure what it was the first time either.

The more often you see one the easier it is to identify them and other mustelids correctly.

The Pennsylvania mustelids which are characterized by strong musk (strong skunk type odor) are the striped skunk, spotted skunk (southern tier), mink, otter, fisher and the three weasel species.

The three species are the ermine, the long-tailed weasel and the least weasel.

Common pets found in many households include the ferret which has its scent glands removed to make it a suitable pet.

If not you could not ever hope to have such a pet in your home.

Badgers and wolverines also belong to this family but are not Pennsylvania residents.

I also must mention the seldom seen pine marten because it shows up in the Red Rose Tea boxes as a collectible ceramic gift in their animal series.

However this species was expiated from the Pennsylvania scene years ago and may wander into Pennsylvania’s northern tier from New York State. Huge tracks of conifer forests are the preferred habitat for these members of the weasel family and they would find the habitat in PA hardly suitable for their needs.

We finally were working our way to the end of the exhibition when I heard the final answer to the wildlife quiz.

What is Pennsylvania’s largest cervid found in the Pennsylvania Wilds Region?

Of course it is the reindeer…good grief…no it’s the elk I wanted to shout. Instead I went the higher road and pointed out an informational sheet on the cervids (like deer & elk in Pennsylvania) and told the family it is really good informational reading.

I don’t know if I am calmer as I get older or not but some things need the straight answer before I let another generation of fair goers go through life misinformed!

Until we meet again get those bows tuned in and do some scouting as we welcome September and archery season is only a month away!

By the way I now have 11 preference points for the next Pennsylvania Elk Hunt Drawing.

I guess I will have to keep on trying while making my annual donation to the elk program!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.