Mink Control

We are currently working throughout the river Hull Catchment and on the streams of the Western edge of the Yorkshire Wolds to remove the American Mink from our waterways. Working in partnership with Yorkshire Water, The Water Life Recovery Trust, The Environment Agency and a Variety of landowners, we aim to provide a comprehensive cover of the East Riding.

The aim is to help restore the natural balance of our chalk streams delicate ecosystems and allow the native water vole, birds such as kingfishers and ducks to establish their populations to former levels. The mink is an impressive hunter and awesome to watch hunting, but our native wildlife is simply not equipped to be able to deal with such accomplished predators. Even the mallard, our most common duck, is in decline, with a loss of 5% of the breeding population and around a third of overwintering bird arriving in the country. The wildlife on our waterways needs our help!

Our Project Manager has nearly 30 years’ experience of trapping these animals but new technology in the shape of the Perdix Pro tag makes life so much easier allowing the traps to be placed in remote locations but monitored from home or by mobile phones. The tag works on vibration, and it is possible to tell whether a reading is caused by a passing animal or an actual catch within the trap. We are also learning to recognise which species are in the trap, purely by the frequency of vibrations. Nontarget species such as the water rail pictured, can be released unharmed.

Pictures five and six show Bishop Burton College Students from the Level 3 Countryside Management and Game Keeping course putting mink rafts together and with the EYRT Project manager learning how to set the traps in the field.