Demography of three populations of American mink <i>Mustela vison</i> in Europe

Bonesi, Laura; Harrington, Lauren A.; Maran, Tiit; Sidorovich, Vadim E.; Macdonald, David W.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2907.2006.00079.x

Cited by 27 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…Halliwell and Macdonald 1996;Bonesi et al 2000;McDonald 2002;Yamaguchi et al 2003;Bonesi et al 2006). The absence of potential predators or competitors of mink on Navarino Island should influence its habitat preferences in terms of being less specific.…”

Section: Habitat Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yamaguchi et al 2003;Reynolds et al 2004;Bonesi et al 2006), systematic data on its population ecology in the Cape Horn region are still wanted. The need for such basic data has been expressed by scientists and public agencies currently supporting the implementation of control strategies for invasive mammals in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (Anderson et al 2006a;Rozzi et al 2006;Soto and Cabello 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Abundance and habitat preferences of the southernmost population of mink: implications for managing a recent island invasion

et al. 2009

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Since 2001 invasive American mink has been known to populate Navarino Island, an island located in the pristine wilderness of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, Chile, lacking native carnivorous mammals. As requested by scientists and managers, our study aims at understanding the population ecology of mink in order to respond to conservation concerns. We studied the abundance of mink in different semi-aquatic habitats using live trapping (n = 1,320 trap nights) and sign surveys (n = 68 sites). With generalized linear models we evaluated mink abundance in relation to small-scale habitat features including habitats engineered by invasive beavers (Castor canadensis). Mink have colonized the entire island and signs were found in 79% of the surveys in all types of semiaquatic habitats. Yet, relative population abundance (0.75 mink/km of coastline) was still below densities measured in other invaded or native areas. The habitat model accuracies indicated that mink were generally less specific in habitat use, probably due to the missing limitations normally imposed by predators or competitors. The selected models predicted that mink prefer to use shrubland instead of open habitat, coastal areas with heterogeneous shores instead of flat beaches, and interestingly, that mink avoid habitats strongly modified by beavers. Our results indicate need for immediate mink control on Navarino Island. For this future management we suggest that rocky coastal shores should be considered as priority sites deserving special conservation efforts. Further research is needed with respect to the immigration of mink from adjacent islands and to examine facilitating or hampering relationships between the different invasive species present, especially if integrative management is sought.

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Section: Habitat Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abundance and habitat preferences of the southernmost population of mink: implications for managing a recent island invasion

et al. 2009

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“…In conventional practice, traps are set speculatively using knowledge of the habits of mink to anticipate where they would travel and what features would provoke investigation and capture (Dobbins 1991;Harding 1906;Melero et al 2008;Moore et al 2003). Catches from trapping in this way were highest in early spring (mating season) and autumn (dispersal season); it was found to be relatively unsuccessful in late spring and summer (Bonesi et al 2006;Moore et al 2003). When traps caught no mink, the operator faced a dilemma.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Empirical development of strategy for the control of invasive American mink by trapping

et al. 2011

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American mink (Neovison vison) are an ecologically damaging invasive species in Europe and Iceland where attempts to control them typically rely on trapping. The focus and efficiency of trapping can be improved by using track-recording mink rafts to identify where mink are present before traps are deployed. This paper describes development of operating strategy for the use of mink rafts with traps, to optimise capture efficiency against costs. We worked sequentially on two unconnected chalk streams in central southern England. On 17 km of the River Itchen, we operated a very high density of rafts (5.9 per km) through spring and summer to generate multiple detections of each mink present. All rafts recording mink tracks were armed with traps, and captured mink were euthanased. After removal of mink until no further detections were made, we calculated that each mink was detected 5.3 times at 5.1 raft sites, and on this basis, rationalised raft density to a standard one per kilometer of river. We set a trap deployment time (10 days) that encompassed the longest observed lapse from detection to capture (7 days), and extended the check interval for rafts in monitoring mode from 1 week to 2 weeks to further reduce costs. These operating rules were then deployed for 12 months on the 44-km River Wylye beginning in autumn. Rafts indicated that the river was cleared of mink through the capture of seven individuals, each of which was detected 3.6 times at 2.7 raft sites, on average, and was trapped within 6 days of detection giving a response time of less than 20 days. Although these operating rules may need refinement for other environments, we believe this is a sound basis for effective mink control.

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“…Cementum aging has been applied to several mustelid species: Mustela erminea (King, 1991), Mustela vison (Bonesi et al, 2006), Mustela putorius (Ansorge and Suchentrunk, 2001), Martes americana (e.g. Hodgman et al, 1994;Fryxell et al, 2001), Martes pennanti (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the age- and sex-dependent morphological variation in two syntopic mustelids: Martes martes and Martes foina

et al. 2015

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a b s t r a c tAge determination is a prerequisite to establish reliable age and sex-specific patterns of morphological variation between individuals, populations and species. In this paper, we explored sex and age morphological variations in pine and stone martens in the same region of Bresse (France) during the same period. Using a large dataset of stone martens and pine martens genetically identified, we discriminated individuals using a set of morphological measurements (body mass, head-and-body length, tooth wear, tail length, neck circumference, posterior foot length, baculum length) and evaluated their power in correctly classifying individuals in three age classes: juveniles, subadults and adults. We then derived cross-sectional growth curves for the two species and estimated the age at the end of growth by adjusting sex and species-specific von Bertalanffy growth curves. Our results showed that sub-adults and adults are difficult to disentangle based on morphological measurements, especially because subadults reached adult size by the age of eight months. On the adults, the sexual size dimorphism in favor of males for all traits we measured was clearly more pronounced in pine martens than in stone martens. Stone martens showed significantly larger measurements than pine martens of the same sex, except for head-and-body length which was not significant and posterior foot length which was larger in pine martens. We discussed our results in the light of various hypotheses concerning biogeographical variation and long-term morphological divergence. Our results suggest that inter-specific differences in morphology might facilitate coexistence of both species in the same area.

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Demography of three populations of American mink Mustela vison in Europe

Cited by 27 publications

References 6 publications

Abundance and habitat preferences of the southernmost population of mink: implications for managing a recent island invasion

Abundance and habitat preferences of the southernmost population of mink: implications for managing a recent island invasion

Empirical development of strategy for the control of invasive American mink by trapping

Quantifying the age- and sex-dependent morphological variation in two syntopic mustelids: Martes martes and Martes foina

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