Exotic Animal Newsflash:
2500 Minks were released early Friday by suspected animal rights activists from a fur farm about 400 km NW of Helsinki in western Finland. Only about 1/2 of them have been recaptured. Police said that it could take days to round up the rest of them.
There are no suspects as of yet, but some initials were spray-painted onto the silo at the farm. They were the initials of the Animal Liberation Front, but in Finnish, which, it is believed, could have been done by anyone. (Photo: American mink)
To read more about this article, go to:
Minks freed from cages, farmers give chase
I hope they don’t catch the rest of the mink, as the European mink is one of the most endangered mammals in the world. They are actually extinct in central Europe since the beginning of the century, and the remainder of them have shown a huge decline over their natural range. I hope they have a chance to settle in the surrounding areas and repopulate, even if it is short-lived!
Mink: The Unexpected Endangered Species
When I think of mink, I certainly didn’t think they were endangered…in fact, they are one of the most endangered mammals in the world. The terrible thing is that the 1st thing that comes to my mind is a mink coat. How sad. I don’t even think of them living in the wild…
They are semi-aquatic and are carnivores.
Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Genus: Mustela
There are 4 species of mink: Mustela vison, Mustela vison evergladensis, Mustela lutreola, Mustela macrodon.
Mink are in the same family as otters and polecats.
It’s true, the mink has been highly prized for it’s fur, and this lead the way to large-scale mink farming. This is the precise reason that the animal welfare activists have been vocal and adamant about standing up for the mink.
Preferring a habitat of forest brooks, the American mink is well suited to it’s homeland range. However, the Everglade mink, a subspecies, is very endangered.
The Great Lakes mink has had a widespread decline, primarily thought to be due to pollution of PCBs and dioxins.
Mink have an extremely high mortality rate. Mink that survive the 1st yr of life in the wild can live as long as 3 yrs. In contrast, mink in captivity have been known to live between 10-12 yrs. That’s a huge difference.
The other problem is that, in captivity anyway, they will have 4-5 kits per litter and that’s only once/yr. Unfortunately, this number would be dramatically reduced when it comes to breeding in the wild.
What Can You Do To Help?
1. Help stand up for the mink by not purchasing or wearing mink fur coats.
2. Donate to local and worldwide animal welfare groups.
3. You can Donate here to help me start an animal refuge:
I hope you enjoyed today’s installment of Exotic Animal Lover…and I learned a lot about the mink and it’s plight. I hope you spread the word. Until next time…
Live Exotically,
Kimberly Edwards 
P.S. For those of you, who own a mink as a pet, I found the coolest mug…Check it out:
Technorati Tags: mink, mink escape, animal welfare, animal rights, American mink, European mink, mammal, endangered species, animal news, Animal Liberation Front
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Love your posting and I especially loved the picture of the mink kit – it’s absolutely adorable
Just to let you know that muskrats are not in the same family as mink, etc. They are rodents, while mink are mustelids, like ferrets, weasels and otters.
Thank you so much grannyweasel for your great information that the mink is not in the same family as the muskrat.
Upon reinspecting my resources, it does mention that they are.
*** However, upon further investigation of the scientific classification, they are, in fact, not in the same family, just as grannyweasel said.
Muskrats are in the Cricetidae family, and mink are in the Mustelidae family. Also, I thought it was interesting that mink prey upon the muskrat.
Scientific Classification doesn’t lie…Awesome stuff!
Thanks again. I love feedback and more information! Keep it up!
Kimberly Edwards
http://www.ExoticAnimalLover.com
Thanks for the informative post