A rariety ?

Billy Bunting

Caught this chap this week, sorry its not a great picture but although i catch sight of Mink quite often this is the first time i've seen a White one, is this a rariety ??

DellyBelly

Are you sure its not an escaped ferret?

Billy Bunting

This is the wilds of Donegal and is a definete Mink, in actual fact there is a Mink "farm" just about 200m away from where i photographed it, this location was riddled with Mink due to certain folk who in their mind deemed it kinder for the "farmed" Mink to be released into the wild caring little for what else was natually there. As said, i have seen hundreds of Mink but never a White one, other than in the fur coat variety and a Google search does find them they do indeed seem rare.

cameramonkey

Billy Bunting wrote: »

This is the wilds of Donegal and is a definete Mink, in actual fact there is a Mink "farm" just about 200m away from where i photographed it, this location was riddled with Mink due to certain folk who in their mind deemed it kinder for the "farmed" Mink to be released into the wild caring little for what else was natually there. As said, i have seen hundreds of Mink but never a White one, other than in the fur coat variety and a Google search does find them they do indeed seem rare.

Who were these folk who released them into the wild?

Billy Bunting

cameramonkey wrote: »

Who were these folk who released them into the wild?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056045737

Cul a cnoic

Badgers eating out of trees and now white mink, your on a roll today Billy Bunting. Wouldn't be too keen on having them around, whether they are white or not.

Billy Bunting

Believe it or not i also have a pine martin that we often have on the bird table but allas i cannot find a picture just now.

Every evening we have 3 badgers who visit and finish the bird freebies we place on the lane outside the house, their eyesight is so poor they never see the sligh fox who sneaks in and gets the choice bits.

dodderangler

After closer look zooming in an out there that is ordinary run of the mill white ferret ferret
Someone probably lost him out hunting
If you see him Again approach him
Make clicking sounds and kissin type sounds and he should come over
Try get him before a fox or bop gets him or a mink as a mink will kill him
Hate seeing them loose because they are domestic and used to humans they are unaware of the dangers around

Billy Bunting

dodderangler wrote: »

After closer look zooming in an out there that is ordinary run of the mill white ferret ferret
Someone probably lost him out hunting

And how did you come to that conclusion ?

I return to my OP, Although i catch sight of Mink quite often this is the first time i've seen a White one, is this a rariety ??

Eddie B

Billy Bunting wrote: »

And how did you come to that conclusion ?

I return to my OP, Although i catch sight of Mink quite often this is the first time i've seen a White one, is this a rariety ??

It's fairly rare alright, but seeing as your sighting is so close to a mink farm, you've a better chance than most of seeing an odd coloured mink! This mink is either an escapee or the offspring of an escapee!

DellyBelly

Billy Bunting wrote: »

And how did you come to that conclusion ?

I return to my OP, Although i catch sight of Mink quite often this is the first time i've seen a White one, is this a rariety ??

If it is in fact a mink and not an escaped ferret I would say it would be rare. Hopefully a bird of prey picks it off before it does to much damage around the area anyway

recedite

The photo is not good enough for an ID, but maybe the OP saw the creature swimming and therefore knows it is a mink.

Cul a cnoic

The OP is living close to a mink farm and therefore is familiar with mink, and when the OP says its a mink, I would tend to agree.

ps, Its looks like a mink.

cuddlycavies

farms cultivate all sorts of colours and strains. there are lots of pics of albino mink on yahoo images. the wet habitat also suggests mink. it's a white mink.

Billy Bunting

Cul a cnoic wrote: »

The OP is living close to a mink farm and therefore is familiar with mink, and when the OP says its a mink, I would tend to agree.

ps, Its looks like a mink.

I live within 5 miles of 2 Mink farms and ironically on the edge of a nature reserve, i have in the past trapped Mink on the lough in front of my home, i have been upclose and very personal with 100s if not 1000s of Mink.
This particular Mink i first spotted from some distance and i first thought is was the creamy frothy scum you often see coming down a river, but then i clicked because it was actually swimming upstream, as we know Mink are semi-aquatic unlike Ferrets, a got within 30ft when i took the shot it stood looking at me for around 5 seconds before dropping below the river and reapearing some 30ft upstream.
This Mink had Black eyes and nose, it was not an Albino as most white Ferrets are, it was pure snow white, not yellowish white, the texture of the fur is completely different, to the Minks cost. If anyone was to put this animal along side a Ferret i'm sure anyone who had previously seen the 2 animals would see the difference and spot the Ferret from the Mink.
What i was really hoping for when i posted the picture was not an ID but some expert could tell me more about the coloration, i see plenty of White Mink Fur coats on the internet but as yet only 1 picture of a White Mink.

recedite

If people are willing to buy white mink coats, then mink farmers will rear the white mink, simple as.
An interesting thing about the mink living wild in Britain; they are starting to return to their original wild American colour which is chocolate brown, and the black ones are getting rarer. Whereas here, they are still pure black, usually.

recedite

recedite wrote: »

If people are willing to buy white mink coats, then mink farmers will rear the white mink, simple as.
An interesting thing about the mink living wild in Britain; they are starting to return to their original wild American colour which is chocolate brown, and the black ones are getting rarer. Whereas here, they are still pure black, usually.

Slightly related but as they're more use to humans/tame, adrenaline levels reduce and melanin levels change along with it.
Here's Belyaev's experiment with it.
Link

recedite

Interesting....If there is any kind of increase in "tameness" associated with farmed mink in the fancy fur colours, then you would expect them to revert to the wild type a certain number of generations after being released, because of the amount of trapping and pest control. And that's apart from the camouflage disadvantage they would suffer from.

Eddie B

The different variety of colour variations in mink is due to selective breeding just like pet rabbits, rats etc! Even after generations of breeding in the wild there are often throw backs to the colouration produced in fur farms!

Sorry this mink wasn't photographed in its natural state but its hard get this close to a mink in the wild