Fife landowners are being urged to help combat rising mink numbers, as fears grow for the future of the water vole.
American mink became established in the UK after escaping from fur farms and have become a threat to native wildlife, in particular the iconic water vole immortalised by the erroneously-named Ratty in The Wind in the Willows.
Fife Council biodiversity coordinator Yohanna Willi said ”tens of thousands” of pounds would be required to roll out an eradication programme to control mink numbers. And until funding is secured, she appealed for landowners’ help.
Ms Willi said: ”There used to be a control programme in east Fife, which was a funded project. Landowners were supported to control them. That ran out about two-and-a-half years ago.
”There have been a lot of reported sightings of mink and it’s becoming a problem.
”There’s no funding for a coordinated approach, and that’s the most effective way when you have as many landowners as possible tackling the problem at once.
”We would encourage landowners to undertake control. We don’t want to lose one of our native mammal species. We don’t have many mammal species. It would be a great shame if Britain lost one of its iconic species.”
She added: ”In Fife we surveyed the water vole population in 2010. As far as we are aware, the population has gone down since the last survey in 1999.”
Water voles face other challenges, including the erosion of their riverbank habitats.
The Fife Biodiversity Action Plan for 2013 to 2017 is currently being drawn up and conservation of the water vole is set to be made a priority.
Ms Willi said mink were deliberately released into the wild by animal activists.
”They thought they were doing a good deed, but they were actually causing so much harm to nature.
”Mink also go for ground-nesting birds and chicks, and fish as well, so fishermen don’t like them. They have a widespread impact.”
Previous attempts to control mink numbers in north-east Fife proved effective and led to a recovery in water vole populations.
Photo by Chris Ison/PA Archive