Mink removal project could extend further into Lincolnshire
A mink removal project could extend further into Lincolnshire to protect the county’s water vole population.
Dog walker Chris Payne was given a shock recently when he spotted a mink on the riverbank in High Street, Spalding.
The Waterlife Recovery East (WRE) was launched in 2018 to humanely remove mink from Norfolk and Suffolk but it is now looking to move further into Lincolnshire.
A spokesman for the Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership said: “American mink can be found throughout South Holland, Lincolnshire and the UK in general.
“Mink are active predators, feeding on anything they are big enough to catch, including ground-nesting birds and our native water voles. Nationally, water vole populations have crashed, with numbers down by 90% in 20 years, with the main reason being predation by mink.
“Water voles are now under threat of extinction, but areas of Lincolnshire currently remain as strongholds, including the Fens and coastal marshes.
"Mink are an invasive species and there is no natural predator in the UK to keep them under control. They are skilled, agile predators, with a taste for a wide variety of prey. Almost anything within reach will be taken, from rabbits (which are much larger than mink) to water birds like moorhens, to frogs and fish. Even hole-nesting birds like sand martins and kingfishers are not safe.
“The WRE project was started in 2018, a partnership with the goal of removing mink from a large part of East Anglia, through the humane use of smart traps. Although the core zone of the project is in Norfolk and Suffolk, the buffer zone extends into southern Lincolnshire.
“The Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership is supporting WRE to extend mink control further into Lincolnshire, to protect the existing water vole populations and enable them to expand and build resilience.
“The WRE project has been very successful in a relatively short time, with very few mink now being caught in the core zone, indicating that eradication is possible.”
