Mink's

[josaphine32]

I have lived in the countryside near the river thame all my life and my mum always said to me that there used to be a mink farm where our allotments are ( next to the river ) one night the animal rights activists came and they released them, i have never ever seen one until yesterday and i am not even at home, we were amazed, the funny thing is that i bought my daughter a camera for her brthday last week so we have pictures of it, my question is are they seen quite often? and this one did not have a white patch underneath its neck, and it was very dark indeed i have googled it but it is very contridicting in saying if it is a American mink or European, can anyone help

[lankeela]

According to this site, there are no European mink in Gt Britain.

http://www.the-piedpiper.co.uk/th1i.htm

[Kleiber]

The only good place for a mink is on a woman's back!! Forgive me, but they're a damn nuisance, destroying our indigenous wildlife. We, unfortunately, have them here and they take little ducklings on the river, rob birds' nests, eat our native fish, break into chicken runs - the list is endless! They are pushing our native otters out (remember how the grey squirrel has pushed our native red to the brink of extinction?) - yes, I hate them!!!

[burnhal]

Mink are in a ver big way responsible for the decline of the water vole. Ok- an otter will take a water vole if it happens upon one- but a mink is capable of getting into the burrow and wiping them out.

Otter decline is NOT due to mink. The otter is a much bigger creature than the mink and as such the mink is no threat to it. The decline of otters was primarily due to US!! Water pollution due to pesticides and habitat loss in the 60s and 70s nearly wiped out the british otter population. Recent improvement in habitat has encouraged the otter to spread out of the few strongholds it had and recolonise.
It is interesting to note that when otters move in...the mink move out!!