American Mink
Neovison vison
46.3812, -95.8222
Field Notes
Description:
An American Mink bringing home the...fish, enough to feed a family in this case
Habitat:
In and around the river in areas that stay open all winter
Notes:
We first saw this fellow running or lopping across the road. We lost him for a short time in the foliage near the river but later found it in a tree, hiding I believe. Once it deemed it safe to come down, it went down to the open area of river and started fishing. This is a series I took after watching it previously bring up a much smaller fish and run off with it into the reeds and cattails below us, alongside the river. I was amazed at the size of the fish compared to the size of the mink. When it first came out of the water it got up on the ice, set down its catch and gave a mighty shake. After shaking the water from its fur it paused to look around and sniff the air and then proceeded to run towards us/its burrow with the fish held securely in its mouth. It seemed to know we were there and, since we hadn't tried to steal its previous catch, deemed it safe to bring the larger catch home to its den or den's entrance directly below us. We sat and watched this particular Mink for over 45 minutes before it entered deeper water and was lost to our sight.
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