Volunteers required to help eradicate predator mink
VOLUNTEERS are being recruited to help a major £3.34million project tackle the threat of invasive American mink to native wildlife across northern Scotland.
The four-year Scottish Invasive Species Initiative (SISI), led by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), aims to remove non-native mink from a 29,500 km2 area spanning more than a third of Scotland from the Tay in the south to remote northwest Sutherland.
The species was brought to Scotland for fur-farming in 1938 and, as a consequence of escapes and deliberate releases, became established in the wild in the 1960s.
Mink are opportunistic and ferocious hunters and their presence in the countryside has a devastating effect on native Scottish wildlife, such as ground nesting birds and endangered water vole populations.
Water voles, in particular, have no defence against the mink, which is the only predator able to fit into their underground tunnels.
Mark Purrmann-charles, SISI Project Officer for the Tayside area, said: “This time of year is critical for our mink work. We really need to control mink before they breed; one female mink hunting a 4km stretch of river can take 100 water voles over the 3-4 months of feeding her young– that is ten water vole colonies, often an entire local population, wiped out.
“We really want to remove them in spring before they breed and their young spread widely and cause devastation to native wildlife.”
SISI is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (£1.59m) and SNH (£500k), along with in-kind funding from the Fisheries Trusts and volunteer time (£1.25m).
The project has already recruited some volunteers between Dunkeld and Ballinluig, while others are needed around Blairgowrie and Rattray, Coupar Angus, Carse of Gowrie, Aberfeldy and Pitlochry.
Volunteers are also required in the Luncarty to Stanley area near Perth.
Volunteers will be trained to set up and monitor a “mink rafts”.
The raft contains a clay pad hidden inside a tunnel and the tell-tale sign of mink presence is when they leave their footprints in the clay as they explore inside the tunnel. Once the raft is set up the volunteer just needs to check it for footprints every 1-2 weeks.