Sentences with phrase «european minks»

Elsewhere in Europe, too, reintroduced European minks live in such ecological safe spaces.

Somewhere along the upper Aragón River, between the jagged peaks of the Pyrenees and a hydropower dam, conservation biologist Madis Põdra and his colleagues will release 10 or 12 captive - born European minks (Mustela lutreola) next week into a mink's idea of heaven: a pristine patch of Spanish wilderness with 150 kilometers of waterways.

«They've a pretty good handle on the situation in Europe,» says Livieri, who predicts that European minks will survive for «thousands of years.»

The rafts, 300 of which have been deployed, hold little interest for European minks but are irresistible to American minks.

European mink were widespread a century ago, living along rivers and streams and preying on voles, amphibians, crayfish, and fish.

«The European mink is always going to be a managed species because it looks impossible at the moment to completely get rid of American minks,» says Põdra, who's with the European Mink Association in Barcelona, Spain.

Põdra hopes they will start a new population and help save the European mink, a critically endangered species whose population in Spain is down to 500.

They also brought new diseases, but scientists disagree on the role of infections in the European mink's decline.

Already included on the IUCN's regularly updated «red list» of endangered species are six European mammals, including the Iberian lynx (pictured above), the Arctic fox, and the European mink.

Not exact matches

Disappearing habitats and hunting partly explain the decline, but the American mink, a distant cousin that looks very similar but lacks the European species's iconic white nose, has done by far the most damage.