One by one, American mink are being removed from rivers in Scotland, in what has been described as the biggest conservation scheme of its kind. These animals first arrived in the UK in the 1950s, imported from America to be farmed for their fur.The story reminded me that mink were found to be responsible for the bizarre phenomenon of the "dog suicide bridge" in Scotland, where 50 dogs have jumped to their deaths.
But after some escaped - or were released - they have spread around the country, and scientists estimate there are now tens of thousands throughout the UK.
And the predators have had a devastating impact on local river wildlife, affecting birds such as moorhens, coots, widgeon and teal, fish and most markedly water voles, which have declined by more than 95% over the last 50 years...
Even animal welfare organisations like the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals make exceptions to their strong stance against killing wild animals when it comes to invasive species...
"We very much find evidence that water voles are making a comeback - some areas that have not seen water voles for 10, 20 years are now being reoccupied. And we expect species like moorhens will make a recovery. They used to be abundant, but we don't see many now.
02 February 2011
Scotland tries to eradicate its mink population
From BBC News:
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Although unrelated to the mink story there is an interesting story about another species being brought over here to Scotland. There is an island of Wallabies in Loch Lomond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inchconnachan
ReplyDeleteSadly many wish them to be culled to
Sounds a lot like the Nutria problem in Louisiana.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nutria.com/site.php
Good luck with that! Those things breed like...well, like mink.
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