Miguel
- Cádiz
The think is, this is nothing new…. I remember reading about American mink at Nick Lloyds Iberia Nature quite a few years ago.
American mink : visón americano : Mustela vision
As in the rest of Eurasia, the American mink is an invasive species which has escaped from fur farms. There are reckoned to be an average of half a million on Spanish farms alone. All Spanish fur farms are above the xxxxxx, as the mink needs cooler temepatures to grow a healthy and silky coat.. Although the first escape from a Spanish fur farm did not occur until 1958, the mink quickly mangaged to gain a foothold in parts of Cantabria, Galicia, parts of Castilla and Valencia. Further escapes have extended th espceis down the Ebro Valley and into Catalonia, where the last recorded escape took place in 1983. A fire at a fur farm killed thousands, but a few, enough, managed to flee into the countryside. An extremly efficient hunter, the American mink has led its European counterpart almost to the brink of extiction through fiece competition. Only a couple of thousand (or a few hundred, noone really knows) of European mink are thought to survive in Navarran encalves, though reintroduction schemes are underway. The American mink may also have a negative impact on species such as the endangered Pyrennean desman.
Plenty of time to learn from past mistakes, but as usual, nada de nada!!!!!! Its really quite annoying…
Here’s the original article at Iberia Nature: http://www.iberianature.com/material/minkspain.html