Mink

Mustela vison

The mink is a water weasel, living near streams and ponds and a very capable swimmer. Like other weasels, mink will chase larger prey down into its burrow and kill it there; the most common prey dispatched using this stratagy is the muskrat. It also takes fish, frogs, shellfish, watefowl (particularly ducklings and goslings), and other riverside mammals.

Mink fur is soft, luxurious, and valuable. Wild mink are trapped, but these days must mink fur comes from mink farms. Many varieties of mink have been bred to yeild different color fur.

Mink were originally native to North America, but fur farm mink have been deliberately introduced in mainland Europe. Vandalism by animal rights activists in the Brittish Ilses resulted in the release of hundereds of mink on the Brittish countryside. These have formed a stable breeding population, resulting in an ecological disaster as the wildlife of these islands was not prepared to deal with the sharp-toothed, lithe little hunters. The beloved english water vole is now nearly extinct due to mink depredation.

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