On the edge of a small colony, near the Yellowstone River, just a mink's throw away.. Was gaining on him...

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

If mink topped out at 125 pounds, no one would be alive.

ferret?

I've heard that minks are real bad asses. Diminutive bad asses.

It better be careful, or it'll catch the plague...

Yes, they are a wicked little critter. Teeth like a buzz saw!
A muskrats worst nightmare!

I’d think a wolverine would kick their ass.

No doubt. In the old days I tried trapping mink back east, squirrel was the preferred bait.

No doubt at all they'd eat a PD.

They'll steal the fish off your line if you swing it onto the bank around here.

Didn’t know we had any in TX anymore. Never seen one in the wild.

Tru Dat, We'd all git ate!

Ounce for ounce, it'd be a blurr of fur and blood no doubt. Wolverine probably have nightmares of mink biting their balls!

When in my late teens working on a trapline....the owner of the line had a dog, maybe 50-60 lbs, he got into it with a mink and they fell into a shallow well about 6ft deep....only one was coming out alive, the dog was the winner but he could of used a new set of lips afterward LOL, he was pretty shredded.

Or like this guy......a Weasal

Mean little buggers.......

I've never seen a mink around here but I run into a weasel on occasion. We also have otters in the river and pine martens in the mountains.

This site, https://pinemarten.ie/the-pine-marten/how-to-tell-a-pine-marten-from-a-mink/, says that mink are non-native. Other sites say it is native. I don't know which is true.

That's an Irish site, discussing critters in Ireland.

Mink are native to the USA

You're right. I didn't catch that part. Thanks.

The American mink (Neogale vison) is a semiaquatic species of mustelid native to North America, though human intervention has expanded its range to many parts of Europe and South America. Because of range expansion, the American mink is classed as a least-concern species by the IUCN.
Species: N. vison
Genus: Neogale

Had a mink in our front yard one day about a year ago. We're about 500 yards from the nearest pond/crick. It must have been looking for new digs.

fought a mink on 6lb test mono one time. he broke off and runnedoft with my 12 inch brown.

Some years ago I shot a moose in the afternoon. We quartered it and went back to the truck for a toboggan and packs. There were fresh bear tracks in the area so we had to get it out that night or risk losing it. When we got back to the moose after dark, a pine marten had staked a claim on it. It was hilarious watching his antics as he tried to run us off. The hide was lying there frozen to the snow. My partner was at one end of it and the marten grabbed the other end and tried to take off with it. You can guess how successful it was at dragging a frozen down moose hide. He had his teeth in it and was trying to drag it backwards, throwing snow with all 4. When we were done and leaving, he was up on the rib cage shaking a fist at us - "and don't come back you thieving scumballs!"

Mink run in herds... Got this while steelhead fishing last year.

Great video. Well except the shirtless guy at the end…

Mink are hard on yard birds. Little things can get into a coop and turn a bunch of chickens into meat pretty quick.

They sure don't need much of an opening.

Smelly bastards too.

Steve
I had one swim up to my canoe and try to get in while I was duck hunting on the Willamette. It was a little weird

I could believe that.

ya never know.. maybe it was just wanting to rape a Prairie Dog because it was horny and prairie dogs were all that it was seeing at the time..

I've seen a raccoon humping a beagle before...and the beagle just stood there and let it do it...

I was sitting on a log on a PA trout stream tying a fly or leader or something and had been pretty quiet. Heard nails on the log and looked left to see this mink hauling ass down the log. Ran right across my legs and into the water at the other end. It was over so quickly I didn't even have time to jump or even make a move or hardly make as sound (which was less like a scream and more like a giant intake of breath).

As noted, mink are found near water, usually. Prairie dogs not, usually. I'd strongly suspect that what was seen was a ferret, which live in PD colonies and prey on the "dogs" all the time. Here in Utah and Wyoming, the conservation depts are trying to re-introduce the endangered black-footed ferret to PD colonies to protect the species.

No, it was absolutely a mink. Goodness. I'll try to get a picture of the area someday.

Saw an otter grab a silver salmon which had been snagged and was hanging in the current. Otter won, breaking the guys line and ran up under a brush pile to eat.

They don't stand up to 44mag very well.........It was personal.

Last year I seed an otter chewing on a roadkill deer, just an otter's throw from the Missouri River. I regret not starting a thread...

Boomer, I defer to your eyewitness account.

Well, yah.

It's common for people to mix up mink and pine martens. They're about the same size and general shape but martens are a bit more like a cat and have bigger ears and fuzzy tails. Otherwise they look very much alike.

pine marten


mink

Although I have spent time in the right places, I have never seen a marten. Buddy said he saw what had to be a ringtail in SW Oregon. Haven't seen one of those either. Or a dall or stones sheep or muskox or polar bear...

Fisher for reference.

Pugs,
Yowza!

It's good he had his pants on!

I think what 'Boomer meant to type was manx, but autocomplete changed it to mink. I'm not an expert on distribution of feral manx (heck, I've never even been to Utah), so if you say tweren't, tweren't.

Dale been hitting the sauce, possibly to chill?

Ain't no chillin' in this dry heat.

Strangely pleasant here in west Misery. And verdant to the maxx. They should bring those beefs down here.

We had a mink nest in the gas closet on the side of the brewery. Little bastard made a home in the insulation.

Holy mother of god, did it stink. He’d forage for clams, fish, and whatever the hell else, then fill the insulation with his seafood salad mink schit. I think I’d rather scrub out a well seasoned Honey Bucket than clean out all that insulation again🤮

I had a mink once. Got older and turned into a cougar.
Older still it became a tiger.
Dont [bleep] wid tigers.

For Rocky.


PD colony, irrigation ditch (previously un-noted) and the Jellystone in the background.

I've only seen a few and usually that's just a quick glance before it disappears. They're pretty common in some areas but very good at hiding.