European mink

European mink (Mustela lutreola )

The European mink (Mustela lutreola ) is a predatory species of the marten family ( Mustelidae ). He is one of the most endangered mammal species in Europe. The American mink he is not very closely related and also not crossable.

Description

European mink reach a body length from 28 to 43 centimeters, the tail is 12 to 19 inches long and her weight is 400-740 grams, where the males are significantly heavier than the females. The body is elongated, the limbs and the tail are relatively short. The fur color varies from reddish brown through dark brown to blackish, the underside is lighter. The area of the chin and the upper lip is colored white, some animals also have white spots on the throat and chest. The coat is very dense and water repellent, especially in winter.

Distribution and habitat

European minks were once native to Europe, their range extended from northern Spain to western Siberia and the Caucasus region. By hunting, destruction of habitat, and the competition of the American mink they are extinct but in much of today exist only relict populations, mainly in Eastern Europe.

Mink are bound in their habitat to the water. They inhabit the banks thickets and other areas with dense vegetation along rivers and lakes and rarely hold more than 100 meters from the water.

Way of life

European mink are solitary and strictly territorial, they live in an area of approximately 26 to 32 hectares. They are primarily crepuscular or nocturnal, during the day they retire to burrows that they have dug themselves or have taken (for example, water voles ) from other animals, sometimes they hide in crevices or in the root of the trees. You can swim and dive well and go in the water in search of food.

Food

European mink have a diverse range of prey. To their preferred food include water voles and other rodents, as well as frogs, birds, fish and crabs are captured. In winter, they often hold open a hole in the ice of the waters to even go diving in search of food can.

Reproduction

The mating season is during the months of February or March, after about 35-72 days of gestation period the female gives birth in April or May of the next generation into the world. The high variance of gestation is possibly due to delayed implantation. The litter size is two to seven, on average, four or five pups. They are weaned at about 10 weeks, and are self-employed with 2.5 to 4 months. Sexual maturity occurs at around one year. Life expectancy is estimated at seven to ten years.

European mink and human

The European mink is now one of the most endangered mammal species in Europe, for which three factors:

• For one, they were hunted intensively because of Nerzfells. Even if her fur as less valuable than that of the American mink is considered ( the European mink was never kept in fur farms ), yet every year 50,000 animals were trapped in the Soviet Union, for example, in the 1920s.
• On the other hand they suffer from the destruction of their habitat through deforestation and river straightening, now provide power stations and water pollution further threats dar.
• A third factor has become acute since the 1950s: American mink, which were mass- kept in fur farms in Europe, broke out of captivity as refugees or were released. As the American cousins ​​proved to be robust and adaptable, they have the European style often displaced.

In Germany the last mink was seen in 1925; also in other parts of Europe it is almost completely gone. Only in isolated regions in Russia, Belarus, the Romanian Danube Delta and in south-western France and northern Spain, and especially on the major islands of Estonia, small stocks have held. The total population is estimated at a few thousand animals, the IUCN lists it as a " high risk " ( endangered ). The zoo in Tallinn breeding since the mid -1990s, successful European mink in captivity and poaching several specimens from again.

System

The European mink is counted within the genus Mustela in the subgenus lutreola, which also includes the fire weasel and some Southeast Asian weasel species are counted. These types thereby form its closest relatives, with the American mink he is distantly related.

Protection of species concepts

The fate of the European mink is not an isolated example. Degradation and fragmentation of habitats, over-exploitation, climate change, biological invasions and other anthropogenic factors have led to a massive global extinctions. To counter this trend and to take appropriate measures for the conservation of biodiversity, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted in the framework of the UNCED in 1992.

In this context, the measures for the conservation of the European mink have been strengthened. The renaturation of its habitats is one of the most important but often also the most difficult conservation measures. Thus, in the years 2001 to 2004 for the western population of European mink in the context of three of the EU LIFE projects ( LIFE00 NAT/E/007331; LIFE00 NAT/E/007299; LIFE00 NAT/E/007335 ) the upper Ebro region (Burgos, Soria, Alava, Rioja and Navarra) renatured and examined the effects of these measures on the abundance of the target species. In addition, measures are taken to protect the area in front of the invasive American Mink.

, Programs and measures for their recovery and resettlement and resettlement play for the preservation of endangered species over a crucial role since they suitable habitats can no longer independently repopulate in many cases.

Also for the conservation of the European mink, it is considered in light of its precarious situation as essential to resettle in addition to securing the natural habitats animals in the original distribution areas. Under the existing since 1992 European Endangered Species Programme ( EEP ) for the protection of the European mink reintroduction projects were started at four locations: (1) 2000 to 2005 on the island of Hiiumaa, Estonia (LIFE Project No. LIFE00 NAT/EE/007081 ) and since 2009 on the neighboring island of Saaremaa, Estonia; ( 2), 2000 to 2009 in the northwest German lowlands ( FFH Rabbit Valley), conducted by the University of Osnabrück (Prof. Dr. R. Cupp ); ( 3) since 2006 in the Saarland ( FFH valleys of the ILL, " large-scale conservation projects ILL " Natura 2000 No. 6508-301 ) eV by the club EuroNerz and cooperation partners accompanying scientific research by Dr. Elizabeth Peters ( Osnabrück, www.nerzforschung. de ) and ( 4) since May 2010 at the nature park Steinhude eV by the region of Hannover in cooperation with the Ecological conservation Station Steinhude ÖSSM, EuroNerz eV and the wild animals and endangered species protection station Sachsenhagen eV