Mink are currently being spotted across the UK after escaping from fur farms or being released by animal activists
Roy Waller/Alamy
Wildlife conservation groups aim to eradicate the invasive American mink from all parts of the UK after removing it from parts of the country during a three-year trial. This includes a new approach that uses the odor of the mink's anal glands to lure them into clever traps, making it the first time in the world that the animals have been eradicated from a large area.
“Until about a month ago, we didn't think mink had been eradicated anywhere,” said association president Tony Martin. Waterlife Recovery Trust, organized the trial with volunteers. “Then we found reports of them being exterminated on a small island off the coast of Estonia, but nothing on this scale. This is an order of magnitude larger.”
Mink are small semi-aquatic predators related to weasels and are often farmed for their fur. Over the past century, the American mink (Neo Gale Vizon) is native to North America and has spread to many parts of Europe and South America.
There, the small European mink (Itachi Lutreola) Native to continental Europe.
Mr Martin said the idea of eradicating mink was previously considered completely unbelievable and attributed the success of the Waterlife Recovery Trust's attempt to two innovations. First, they use traps equipped with devices that detect when something is caught and alert the volunteer in charge. “This means you don't have to go to the traps every day,” Martin says.
This is especially important at the end of eradication efforts, he says, when mink may not be captured for months and volunteers are tired of checking traps every day. It is also more humane because traps are readily available and mink can be killed immediately.
The second innovation is the use of scent harvested from the anal glands of captive mink as bait. This makes the trap more attractive to mink and less likely to catch other animals.
In 2020, around 500 traps were set in an area of 6,000 square kilometers covering most of East Anglia. Currently, only traps on the border between the test area and other areas where mink still exist are capturing mink, Martin said. On January 15, the Waterlife Recovery Trust announced that its trials were successful in eradicating mink from designated areas.
The trust has already been given £500,000 by government agency Natural England to expand its eradication efforts to wider areas of the country, with the aim of eradicating mink from across the UK.
“We now know we can do this,” said Martin, who previously led a successful effort to eradicate rats from South Georgia. How long it takes depends on how many traps you can set, he says.
The same approach would work in continental Europe and South America, he says. “With proper planning, any size can work.”
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Source: www.newscientist.com
