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Cool Links: Animal Diversity Web : Mink species profile Mink tracks and gait - great photos, from Dennis Deck's excellent Virtual Dirt Time: An Adventure in Tracking Online Mink and the North American Fur Trade - a historical account
back to Nature Notebook closeup photo: Doug Lloyd; photo: Tim Riches |
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Mink
live throughout much of northern and eastern North America near water of all kinds—marshes, swamps,
and streams. These semiaquatic critters eat crustaceans, fish, frogs,
and small rodents. Although generally nocturnal, you sometimes can spot
them during the day in winter. Like all mustelids, mink give off a musky
odor from a pair of scent gland near the base of their tails. Their
common name—mink—comes from the Swedish "menk," which was originally used to refer to the furs of
"that stinking animal from Finland."