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Largest ever attempt to remove mink from Scotland is underway26/05/2011 12:11:53
CAPTURE: American mink are destroying local wildlife Threatening native wildlife such as water voles and salmon May 2011: The largest ever initiative to remove breeding American mink from north Scotland is now underway. Aiming to protect native wildlife, such as water voles, ground-nesting birds and economically important populations of salmon and game birds, to help protect local economic stability for the benefit of local communities, the initiative signals a £920,000 investment in native wildlife conservation. Safeguarding wildlife and protecting local livelihoods ‘By taking action now to prevent mink from continuing to impact negatively on our native wildlife, we are also safeguarding local economies and livelihoods which depend on angling, shooting, or wildlife tourism. ‘The success of this initiative relies on community support and involvement, and we hope that by working with homeowners, landowners, river trusts and boards, and local interest groups, we can deliver real, tangible results to benefit local communities now and in the future. ‘We have now appointed four mink control officers and we will be working at a local level to monitor mink movements using mink rafts and establish an alert system, made up of local landowners, fishery trusts, volunteers, and interested others, to prevent further spread of the species. While animal control will be necessary, animal welfare considerations will be paramount to our operations.'
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Taggs Island on the Thames near Hampton Court, can hardly claim to be reliant on wildlife tourism - but there is a fairly large diversity of wildlife here. Less though since a couple of mink took up residence.
If they weren't such ruthless predators, maybe they'd be alive today!
Posted by: simon bowen | 31 May 2011 15:32:02
I couldnt agree more!
Posted by: KathrynDriscoll | 29 May 2011 22:28:23
This only makes me sad in that it is ultimately doomed to either failure or to many a repeat application. The mink are harming far more wildlife than just the grouse. Human behaviour, in these modern times, can hardly be referred to as a consequence of natural evolution. Human "evolution" has hardly been at all natural for many a year, or else we would certainly not be here in such numbers nor would we be able to introduce so many dangerously alien species to the various environments.
Grey squirrels, Himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed, signal crayfish, mink........cane toads.....one might even, if one wished to push the boundaries to an extreme on this, suggest that Europeans in Australia, and similar introductions, have all had a detrimental effect on the native inhabitants. And by inhabitants you might well include, for Austrealia, the aborigines.
Posted by: JayZS | 28 May 2011 09:17:35
This makes me very sad. On my first visit to Scotland I was confronted by gallows on which were strung the corpses of hundrds of wild cats, killed because they were considered to be a danger to the grouse shooting business. Now escaped mink are to be slaughtered for the same reason. The attempt to solve the problems caused by human introductions, deliberate or accidental, by simply killing those which are ecologically successful is to embrace a fools' paradise. So-called 'aliens' are the inevitable consequence of biosphere evolution, which includes human behaviour. I call this botched bio-engineering.
Posted by: Sidney Holt | 28 May 2011 07:33:29