ENCOUNTERS WITH MINK

      In the last several years, since the fur market is nearly non-existent because of the work of animals rights people, I've been thrilled to see many wild mink, male and female, along waterways in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Mink numbers apparently increased with much less trapping pressure.  

     Mink are a semi-aquatic member of the weasel family, having the long, thin bodies of weasels, and quick, untiring actions of weasels.  And mink have the same fierce predator attitude of all members of its family.        

     The first mink I saw was a female running along the Cocalico Creek near Ephrata in mid-March several years ago.  Naturally, I was excited to see her bounding along that waterway on some kind of a mission. 

     That same spring, I saw another female mink weaving quickly along a stream near Reinholds, and another female bounding across the New Holland Pike where it passes over a stream.  And I saw still another female mink swimming in Mill Creek, just south of Lancaster.

     And during that same spring, I saw a big, black male mink along route 117, where it closely parallels the Conewago Creek, just west of Mt. Gretna.  And I spotted another male mink standing along a road near the Brandywine Creek in Chester County.  Another year, I noticed a male mink running along Mill Creek at Mascot in search of a female.  And, that same spring, I spotted a male mink at the Coatesville Reservoir prowling around in search of a mate.  Every spring, the mostly-nocturnal mink are more visible by day because they are seeking mates and traveling far and wide, day and night.  

     Female mink have beautiful brown fur, a white spot on their chin and are noticeably smaller than male mink.  Male mink are larger than their mates, and black.  

     Happily for me, I have seen a couple of mother mink tending their young.  One had a litter of young down a wood chuck hole in a grassy floodplain near the Cocalico Creek in Lancaster County.  I knew she had babies down that burrow because every six to ten minutes, as I watched with binoculars, she ran a mouse she caught down that hole to feed her progeny.        

     In May, of another year, I saw another mother mink ferrying five babies, one at a time, across the Conestoga River in Lancaster County.  Apparently, her den was disturbed by a predator of some kind and she moved her young to another, hopefully safer, den across the river.  I followed her progress with a pair of 16 power binoculars, so I saw her and the offspring quite well.  

     Mink regularly prey on muskrats, mice, frogs, fish, ducklings and other types of creatures.  And mink,  themselves are the prey of great horned owls, golden eagles, bald eagles, coyotes and other critters.  

     Wild mink are handsome, interesting members of the weasel family, living along waterways throughout much of North America.  But they are nocturnal, mostly, and usually seen just by happening to be in the right place at the right time.  

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