Wednesday 25 January 2012

More underground Mink footage

I went to pick up the camera trap from the Mink filming location the other day and the batteries had ran out due to it being there for over a week and recording lots of the Minks activity as well as Mice and a Wren popping in and out of the hole. 
The footage on the card this time was of the Mink taking leaves down into the Rabbit hole so I think its building a den to give birth which will be a unique thing to film below is my reasons for not taking any action to stop the Mink breeding as lots of people have suggested I should.
For me it is a tough decision and as I bought a trap a while ago with that idea in mind and nothing ever came of it but I thought that I am there to document them not kill anything, if I humanly dispatched it then it would not make a dent in the population around here as the constant travel of them up and down the canals, rivers and streams would quite easily replace them if I started controlling them then it would have to be 100% committing to it and would be a constant task of bait and kill so its not anything I can take up anytime soon plus the wildlife trust seems to miss out my local area due to the lack of interest they say. The rivers down here flood alot so most of the banks are not suitable for watervoles but there are a number of areas where Watervoles are but I have yet to film them and they are inaccessible by Mink plus now the Otters are coming back here once they settle hoping they will have an effect on the Mink in the area.

I hope that answers antibody's questions regarding Mink and my reasons for leaving the Mink family to there own devices as I am sure the interesting part will be seeing what prey they bring back to the den as so far they have brought a fish in but I missed the part when the fish was brought up to the hole and only filmed it disappearing down into the hole.


I had to bring the camera back for a recharge so 
hopefully I can get the camera back into position by the weekend.


Thanks for reading

Mike

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