Think mink: That fancy fur sprouts from one of our common critters – Paducah Sun

Most people primarily associate mink with luxurious and nowadays politically incorrect coats.

That famous fur known to adorn the exterior of celebrities, the rich and famous, started out on the exterior of slinky, fierce creatures that still prowl our environment. Mink are widely distributed in our part of the world, probably more abundant than they have been in decades, yet seldom noticed by people.

The American mink (there is a European counterpart) is a semi-aquatic carnivore that is native to most of North America, excluding the desert Southwest. It is a member of a family that gives us smaller weasels and larger river otters. Like its cousins, the mink has an elongated, streamlined body, short legs, and smallish head with short ears.

Like the familiar fur, the live mink is a rich brown to black. The soft undercoat is covered with a longer oily fur that is waterproof and suits the minks lifestyle that puts it in the water much of the time. (The mink is a big-time swimmer and diver, capable of doing business submerged for several minutes at a time.)

Mink are only about squirrel size female mink comparable to the largest gray squirrels, and the males similar to or a little larger than whopper fox squirrels. If you could get one to hold still and put a yardstick against a mink, you would find that its overall length is in the range of 20-27 inches. About one-third of the overall length is tail.

The weight of a male mink ranges to about 2 pounds, 3 ounces at tops, while a female may weigh little more than half that. The aggressive attitude of the mink, however, belies its size. They are robust, toothy critters that hunt, kill and eat animals that are larger than themselves.

Mink prey on small stuff like frogs, crayfish, fish from the water as well as mice, voles and other tiny rodents. But bigger males chase down or ambush such as rabbits and muskrats, killing with a bite to the throat.

A mink always operates along a permanent water source, a river, stream or lake. Here in western Kentucky, abundant waterways and impoundments create excellent mink habitat.

We fail to see how routine mink are because their lifestyle is chiefly nocturnal, and what happens along the riverbank stays along the riverbank.

One area of mink activity hereabouts that sometimes gets them noticed (but perhaps not identified) is around our lakes and rivers where there is riprap to stop erosion at waters edge. Mink eagerly hunt these limestone shorelines for access to fish dead and alive as well as to hunt other stuff like rodents that hide in the rock crevices and pockets, drawn to the riprap banks for the same food sources.

Mink are an infrequent sight along wild creek and river courses, but they are sometimes seen around riprap at local state parks on Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley and the associated dams and tailwaters on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. The presence of people more frequently around these favorite habitats exposes mink to more observation, especially when they venture out in daylight.

When not conducting mink business, the water-friendly carnivores typically use some type of den along a river or lake. Living solitary, a mink needs only a pocket in an undercut bank or a hollow log for todays accommodations. Sometimes a mink will occupy a muskrat den, usually after killing all the residents of that den. Hey, food and lodging in one.

Mink will use an abandoned beaver bank den or a stand-alone lodge, but much larger beaver are quite formidable themselves and it is unlikely that a mink will displace an adult beaver from where it wants to be.

The enemies of a mink, especially young mink, are mostly great horned owls, bobcats and coyotes. Add to that humans, although people are not as much of a factor nowadays.

People long have trapped native wild mink for their fur. The luxurious fur is not nearly as valuable nowadays, however. There is a stigma for many about wearing fur now, and lower demand results. In the big markets for fur demand, Russia and China, faltering economies further flogged by COVID-19 fallout presently have almost paralyzed the fur trade.

From the supply side, there are mink ranches out there that produce a steady supply of mink fur that satisfies much of the faltering demand.

The value of a wild mink pelt these days is likely $5 to $10, and that is provided any buyer with a need can be located. The word is, much mink and other furs taken in last years trapping season are still stored unsold in auction houses.

Trapping for most all species has been in decline for years, and presently it is in a low ebb. Consequently, the harvest of wild mink is especially low nowadays, practically at a standstill.

The effect of little harvest allows the mink population to flourish. It has not gone crazy like, say, the raccoon population, but it is doing very well.

Here in western Kentucky, chances are there are far more mink than what meet our diurnal eyes. Maybe that knowledge is pleasing enough.

But if you like the idea of wild fur and want a schmaltzy coat, the u-pick possibilities are out there.

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Think mink: That fancy fur sprouts from one of our common critters - Paducah Sun