Mink Surveillance stepped up

A joint HMWT/FoSL team led by Josh Kalms of HMWT has this week installed two new Mink rafts on Stocker’s Lake. This follows the presence of Mink having recently been detected.

Mink surveillance rafts have been deployed on the lake for several years. The older rafts detect Mink presence by capturing footprints and Mink footprints have now been found twice since December 2021. The new rafts will instead humanely capture the animals whilst simultaneously sending text alerts to inform the team so that they can respond quickly. These are two of 70 rafts that the Trust is currently positioning around the county.

Josh Kalms demonstrates the new raft capabilities

American Mink is a non-native, invasive and predatory species which, when present, can cause great damage to our native wildlife. So it is important to ensure that they don’t re-establish themselves on the lake, especially now that a long awaited return to the lake of our native Water Vole is strongly suspected. (HMWT will be seeking to confirm this by means of a survey this coming autumn.) Water vole populations have largely disappeared across the UK in recent years with mink predation playing a major role in their decline.

Josh wishes to thank our FoSL volunteers who monitor the rafts.