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I was driving along a country road that meandered alongside a small creek on a balmy summer evening. As I came around a bend, my lights shone upon three small creatures. One was larger than the other two, which I surmised were the larger one's offspring. At first glance, I though they were ferrets. They so resembled that common pet shop animal with heir long bodies and short legs. Unlike a ferret, though, they were a solid chocolate brown in color, with no white markings on their face. They were obviously some sort of weasel, but they were larger than the least weasels and long-tailed weasel of which I was more familiar. Suddenly, it flashed on me that these were American mink.

Mink Taxonomy

Two species of mink currently exist: the American and the European. The American mink is found throughout North America from Alaska to Florida. They are absent from most of the Western US and the Arctic islands of Canada. The American mink comes in black and brown color phases in the wild, but in captivity several colors have been bred, including white and spotted phases. These forms were produced during the heyday of the fur industry in fur farms and can still be found in fur-farmed mink populations. The American mink's soft, thick fur made a popular fur-bearer, and during the 1950's and 1960's, mink coats were in demand among fashion conscience women. Today, the market for mink fur is greatly reduced. However, fur-farmed American mink now exist in Europe in the wild. Some escaped from the fur farms, while others were intentionally introduced by the Soviet Union. In Europe, the American mink out-competes the now rare European mink, which only exists in a few countries in Europe, such as Ukraine, Estonia, Spain, southern France, Romania, and parts of Russia. This species of mink differs from the American mink in that it is always dark brown in color and it possesses a white mark on its upper lip. It also has thicker coat. The European mink has been known to hybridize with the polecat, which is believed to be the ancestor of the domestic ferret. Some taxonomists think that this mink is actually a species of ferret and not a "true" mink.

The Sea Mink

A third species of mink once existed in coastal New England, the Maritime Provinces, and possibly Newfoundland. This species was called the sea mink, and it was very similar to the American mink, except it was twice as large and had a stronger musky odor. All species of mustelid have a musky odor, and mink are no exception. However,

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