Mink

[CanalWalker]

either way when otters move in they eat the mink and then there are no more mink. just a small bit of good news in britains environment. and otters are good for voles!

 

 

 

Booming otters benefit water voles

Where otter populations are booming, water voles are bouncing back.

 

Research by the Vincent Wildlife Trust has found that in the areas where otters are most common, water voles are beginning to recover. The reason is mink - the escaped aliens usurped the ecological niche vacated by otters when the native animal declined in the late 1950's, due to the use of organochlorine pesticides, such as aldrin and deildren. Now that otters are back they are killing and eating mink and the beneficiaries are the voles, themselves decimated by the mink. In Wales mink are down by 91 per cent - just where otter populations are recovering well.

 

"The mink population is decreasing everywhere now," says Don Jefferies, who has carried out a special survey for the Trust. "There is a close correlation between it and the otter's recovery. Both the decline and the recovery are good news for conservation."

Edited November 30, 2005 by redstarafloat

[Richard Lacy]

Very Large Numbers of Mink on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal as well as at least two seperate colonies of terrapins which have been around for a number of years . One the size of a dinner plate has given several fisherman a very nasty bite when accidentally caught . There was a Spectacled Cayman ( about 3ft long) which was probably dumped ,around for a while . Makes you think twice about going down the weed hatch !!!

Have seen otters on the Staffs & Worcs a couple of times recently but have not seen a Coypu for ages

[GRPCruiserman]

You aught to see the mess they will make if one ever gets inside your boat!

 

One used to get on my Norman 20 one winter, though luckily it never got in the cabin. It left a right mess in the cockpit, especially in one locker, had to strip out and replace the wood, all soaked in.

 

I tried everything to get it to stop coming on, the only thing that worked was a portable alarm bought from B&Q for about £20. I fitted it in the cockpit and you had about thirty seconds to input your code before it shrieked for a minute then reset itself. The mink obviously set it off when it came on and did a runner, and then the alarm would reset itself for the next time the mink came on when it would go off again. By the next weekend the mink had jumped ship, never to return !!!!

 

Aparently they are less likely to come on if yoy stay on the boat regularly as they don't like human smell, but this occured in the winter when I didn't use my Norman.

[Paul Evans]

....as they don't like human smell....

Is that pheromones, unwashed body, or those other....er,,,,personal odours? Do I need to go for beer, curry and kebabs to drive the little beasties away?

[Guest]

Very Large Numbers of Mink on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal as well as at least two seperate colonies of terrapins which have been around for a number of years . One the size of a dinner plate has given several fisherman a very nasty bite when accidentally caught . There was a Spectacled Cayman ( about 3ft long) which was probably dumped ,around for a while . Makes you think twice about going down the weed hatch !!!

Have seen otters on the Staffs & Worcs a couple of times recently but have not seen a Coypu for ages

 

The dinner plate sized fellow was likely a snapper. They are one evil creature-the fishermen were lucky to have fingers intact if it was a snapper. Kids used to buy them for pets only for their ill informed parents to be horrified at the injuries they could cause.

 

One used to get on my Norman 20 one winter, though luckily it never got in the cabin. It left a right mess in the cockpit, especially in one locker, had to strip out and replace the wood, all soaked in.

 

I tried everything to get it to stop coming on, the only thing that worked was a portable alarm bought from B&Q for about £20. I fitted it in the cockpit and you had about thirty seconds to input your code before it shrieked for a minute then reset itself. The mink obviously set it off when it came on and did a runner, and then the alarm would reset itself for the next time the mink came on when it would go off again. By the next weekend the mink had jumped ship, never to return !!!!

 

Aparently they are less likely to come on if yoy stay on the boat regularly as they don't like human smell, but this occured in the winter when I didn't use my Norman.

Anyone else had uninvited crearures aboard? We found a large toad in the bilges on last boat. I christened him "touchwood" and then released him.

[Keeping Up]

Anyone else had uninvited crearures aboard? We found a large toad in the bilges on last boat. I christened him "touchwood" and then released him.

We were moored once above Cromwell Lock near Newark, just one of the several narrowboats moored against the high wall and all feeling VERY aggrieved at the one shiny new narrowboat moored at the only narrowboat-friendly mooring there, who wouldn't allow anyone to moor alongside them "in case it scratched the paint". The rest of the mooring there is way above roof-height.

 

Anyway the owners of the shiny new boat had also upset the locky, so the next morning he made sure we were all waved into the lock ahead of them. One of the boaters discovered that a water-vole had somehow got on to their front deck; he carefully scooped it up with a dustpan and cast it into the water (well they CAN swim) except that he missed the water completely and in fact threw it in through the open side doors of the aforementioned shiny narrowboat that was just coming into the middle of the lock last of all. The poor vole hit the shoulder of the bad-tempered woman in the kitchen of the boat, before landing on the kitchen work-surface. Her screams were nearly (but not quite) as loud as everybody else's laughter when they realised what had happened!

[Breals]

That sounds like just deserts.

 

My boater friend Mervyn recently had a rat on board. He thinks it got in through his engine vents and then down the bilges to his water tank, where it gnawed through a plastic pipe, completely flooding his boat.

[Richard Lacy]

We had a set of frogspawn hatch out in the engine bilge one year , took ages to finally catch and re release all of them .

We also had a field mouse join the crew at Pratts Wharf , Staffs & Worcs - it stayed aboard for about 3 months and finally left somewhere near Chester . We saw it often but the two cats on board could not catch it much to their frustration as they are both very good mousers normally.

[Alastair]

There is now a photo of Maisie the mink in the 'photo of the month' gallery. Mink aresupposed to be shy and agressive - I took this photo from 2 feet away.

[nigel carton]

great picture, I know there destructive little sods but I can't help thinking that there doing the only thing that comes natural...... surviving!

[DHutch]

I know there destructive little sods but I can't help thinking that there doing the only thing that comes natural...... surviving!

And with no nateral predeter, there likely to suceed!

[Alastair]

Actually, Otters predate on Mink

[John Orentas]

I've seen mink around Barbridge......going to save them up for a coat.....please send dead mink to Hyperion at Wardle

 

Paula

 

 

 

They used to say. Girls get mink the same way mink get mink.

[Paula]

They used to say. Girls get mink the same way mink get mink.

 

Oh how rude!!!!!!

 

But true

Love and kisses Paula XXXXX

[Supermalc]

Oh how rude!!!!!!

 

But true

Love and kisses Paula XXXXX

 

Hmm looks promising for you John take it you've got a few stashed away.

 

Does your missus read this LOL.

Edited December 13, 2005 by Supermalc

[Moley]

Funny how easily we can be manipulated by the fairer sex.

 

Not as I have any objections, of course.

 

They also say that a man's a lot like a fitted carpet ..............