Mink are public enemy number one

THE United States is in the doghouse just now; its addiction to guns is wreaking havoc at home and abroad.

But the export of violence is not confined to armies and weapons; the wild creatures of the New World can be just as destructive. BirdWatch Ireland is worried about the activities of one of them — the American mink is public enemy No 1.

Almost 100 years ago, an American grass, or rather a hybrid of several grasses, took root in our estuaries and started levelling everything in its path; spartina spread over the salt-marshes, eliminating native plants and altering the habitat of the animals living there. Eradicating spartina has proved to be impossible; even keeping it at bay is difficult and expensive.

The next American outlaw to arrive here was the grey squirrel. It was introduced in 1911, as a present for the bride at a wedding celebration at Castle Forbes in Co Longford. A poisoned chalice, the new arrival spelt doom for the local red squirrels and they have been losing out to the invader ever since. Reds are now absent from most of the country while the foreigners continue to thrive.

In the 1930s, American musk-rats got loose in Ireland; they burrowed into dykes and canal banks, causing flooding. The Musk Rats Eradication Act, pushed through the Oireachtas in 1933, enabled the bandits to be gunned down at high noon. In some parts of Europe, however, the outlaws escaped and both the musk-rat and the coypu, another New World rodent, are serious pests.

But the most destructive animal ever introduced here was the American mink. People think the mink is a big creature, but it’s small; indeed, the stoat, the weasel and the mink are probably the smallest flesh-eating mammals in the world. With their long, supple bodies and short legs, they are the warm-blooded equivalents of snakes. They can slither into burrows and negotiate the narrowest tunnels and passages. Sensitive whiskers, a virtual sixth sense, warn them if a hole is too narrow to enter. Woe betide any hapless little creature they encounter; sharp teeth and lightning-fast reflexes make them lethal killing machines.

Small creatures lose heat quickly to the environment and they use more energy, in proportion to their size, than large ones. A mink needs to eat about a third of its weight in food each day to generate body heat. With such a demand for meat it’s little wonder the mink has such a bloodthirsty reputation. To keep warm, the mink developed a thick coat of hair. It’s an aquatic animal, so the coat has to be dense enough to keep water out. The result has been a fur of exquisite texture; mink garments are synonymous with glamour, decadence and ostentation.

To feed the fashion craze, mink farms were established in Europe. The first ones appeared during the 1920s, the animals being imported from America. Mink are clever and resourceful creatures and many escaped from the farms. The Soviet authorities, apparently, released American mink into the countryside, hoping the species would become established in the wild and that skins could be harvested for sale to the capitalist west. Soon, American mink were living wild wherever mink farms had been established. The invaders ousted the native European mink, which became extinct throughout most of its range. Populations survive only in Russia and the Balkans.

James Fairley, in his Basket of Weasels, gives a fascinating account of the mink in Ireland. The first Irish farm was established at Killybegs in Co Donegal in 1951. By 1960, there were at least 40 farms here with an average of 70 animals in each. The prospect of making a quick buck led to many backyard operations, but the mink, like its keepers, is a budding entrepreneur and animals escaped from almost every farm. When the enterprises went belly-up, the proprietors, reluctant to slaughter their charges, simply opened the cages and released the animals. Animal rights groups raided farms and 350 mink were released from an establishment in Swords, Co Dublin, in 1964, a disaster for local wildlife. With friends like these, animals don’t need enemies. The mink has thrived here and is now firmly established in every Irish county.

However, the damage done by mink should not be exaggerated. This is a Jack-of-all-trades, hunting whatever creatures are easiest to catch, but lacking the specialist skills to go after more elusive prey. It is not an expert fisherman like the otter and so, despite some claims to the contrary, it does not pose a serious threat to fish stocks. The nests of coots and moorhens are especially vulnerable, and BirdWatch Ireland is worried about the effect the mink is having on some of our rarer birds.

The common scoter appears to have suffered. During the 1960s we had about 150 pairs of this all-black sea-duck nesting on our lakes but, by 1999, there were only about 80 left. Mink are blamed for the decline.

An even rarer breeding bird, the red-throated diver, is also vulnerable. About 10 pairs nest in Ireland, all of them in Donegal. Stephen Newton, of BirdWatch, claims two red-throated divers were killed recently and wounds on the back of their necks seem to indicate mink were the culprits.

James Fairley’s A Basket of Weasels is published in Belfast, £17.