Sunday, June 21, 2009

Mink!

I was just walking back through Todmorden town centre when I overheard a father pointing out to his daughter something in the river behind the bus station. Sure enough, there was what I can only assume was a Mink, which swam over the stream and under the vegetation overhanging the concrete channel.
I know there was a mink farm up at Swalesmoor some years back (I can still remember the stench of the wagons used to transport the carcasses to the maggot farm at Sharneyford!) but I don't think I have ever been aware of escaped ones still in our area - perhaps I am missing something?
Posted by at

7 comments:

Jeff Cox said...

Phil - I have seen mink further down the river towards Hebden at Eastwood. A friend of mine who lives at Eastwood believes they were responsible for several of his chickens going awol.

12:39 pm
Mike Stead said...

Mink are seen regularly on and around the Calder near Elland GP; there was a large mink farm many years ago on the hillside at the Ainleys.
The local anglers put out traps regularly as mink are thriving so well and causing a lot of damage !

9:07 pm
Goldon Gordon said...

Mink are reglarly seen all the way up the Calder Valley particualrly near the river or canal. They have often been spotted in and around the canal where it runs through Brighouse town centre.

Mike is correct in that the anglers do trap mink at the angling lake at the old gravel pits. A couple of years back when I last spoke with them they had trapped and destroyed 91 mink in less than 12 months.

9:49 am
Marrop said...

My son watched one after Mallard on the canal at Ludd Ft yesterday.

1:28 pm
Phil Wood said...

Thanks all for putting me straight on this one, I will keep my eyes open in future. We seem to have had a dearth of Mallard chicks this year at this spot - perhaps this explains why?

2:59 pm
Goldon Gordon said...

Hi Phil
I think many of the supposed attacks on waterfowl by "Giant Pike" are in fact Mink attacks. Mink are superbly designed to be able to carry out attacks from underwater without ever being seen. I have seen Mink come up under a brood of Mallard chicks and grab one from below. The only way you knew it was Mink was that a trail of air bubbles were spotted and then the mink climbing out at the waters edge with the by now dead chick. They are so well designed for underwater hunting that as I scared one (or my spaniel did) from the canal towpath it dived into the water to escape the dog. I watched the bubble trail as it moved across to the other bank and when it emerged it had a half pound Bream in its jaws ! This is why the anglers are so keen to trap them as they eat huge amounts of fish, especially when they have young to feed. They are a menace to indigenous wildlife but that's not the Minks fault and its just a shame we cannot enjoy them for the superb hunters they are because of the problems they cause.

I think they also cause a problem for our native Stoats & Weasels in that they drive them from the area as I noticed a real drop in Stoat and Weasel sightings at Cromwell Bottom over the years as the Mink moved in. I am not sure how useful trapping them is as once you move out one another one moves in to take its patch. Male mink will not tolerate another male on the their patch and drive them off or kill them. So if you trap the dominant male several will move into his former range until they sort out who is boss, you then have several Mink in the area that only used to have the dominant male. Mink have colonised the area so well now that every niche is filled with the dominant males taking the best areas and the immature males being left with urban areas on the fringes. A sure sign that an adult Otter is in your area is a lack of Mink as Otters will not tolerate a Mink on their area and kill them if given the chance. Big old male Minks on the other hand will take on an immature Otter if it enters their range. Many road casualties amongst the immature Otters are found to have Mink bites when examined in a post mortem.

7:35 am
r1xlx said...

I watched a black animal in the stream that runs down from Stainland into the Calder at West Vale and was surprsied at the ease it just stepped off a rock and swam about lookingunder stones. At first I thought perhaps otter was recolonising then saw it had pointy nose and was likely to be a mink.
Then I remembered the imbecile animal rightsers releasing all the mink at Elland.
The mink was so black I assume it was a'Black Glama' variety created for the filmstars luxury coats business.
My neighbour saw it regularly as it lives in the old boxes and pallets piled at rear of the works built under est VAle viaduct.

6:08 am

Post a Comment