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Tackling the Mink

We are working on a joint project with the Environment Agency trying to tackle a problem that is having a very direct impact on the wildlife in the park. We have seen a decline in the number of water voles and heavy losses of young birds at breeding tine. We think this is being caused by the activities of the American Mink. This species has escaped from mink farms over the years and has been steadily increasing in numbers.

Mink originate from America, where they fit into the natural order. Over here they have no predators so they have spread all over the country hunting on land and in water. They are certainly present along the whole length of the River Dee, and four mink have been seen at one time at the Groves in Chester. They are regularly seen where Caldy Brook joins the Dee and there were two confirmed sighting in the park last summer. They cause phenomenal damage to everything that lives on the river bed - moorhens, coots, mallards, water voles, etc and farmers are complaining that they have moved on to farms and are killing pheasants.

Mink are real killers. Most animals hunt food because they are hungry but mink will kill anything and everything, stash it away and not even bother to eat it. People have been talking for years about the damage mink do but there has never been a concerted national campaign to get rid of them. Things may be about to change.

Max Gooch, a Fisheries Officer working for the Environmental Agency, is trying out a method of trapping that is being promoted by the Game Conservancy Council. Just setting traps has not proved to be very effective and it is very time consuming. He is trying out a new idea. Floating rafts are put in likely places and mink, inquisitive creatures that they are, will crawl onto the rafts to see what is in the tunnel on there. They won't find anything but to get there, they will have left their footprints on some wet mud. These rafts are checked weekly and if signs of mink are seen, Max will set a trap. He will have to inspect the trap daily and he will then humanely dispose of any mink that are caught. Using the rafts should greatly improve the success rate.

Whilst it is very difficult to eradicate any pest, it is possible for us to control them by limiting their numbers. By reducing their impact on the populations of local species our native wildlife will have a chance to recover.

A Few Facts about Mink

• Dense, glossy chocolate brown fur, can look black when it is wet.
• Male is 16 inches/ 40cm head and body plus a 5 inch/ 12.5cm tail. Female is usually smaller.
• One litter of 5 or 6 young is produced a year. The young leave the den at about two months old. The mink is mostly active at night. Mink droppings are foul smelling and when fresh are dark green. Mink tracks show five-toed feet up to one and a half inches/ 4cm long.

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