Last night a mink came poking around our camp. It appeared from under a downed tree and sat watching me for about 30 seconds. After noticing Lichen and Saylix, the mink darted off into the woods.

Mink are loners except for during the mating season. They mate between January and April and the young are born in April or May. The litter s are between 1-10 young. When the young are born they weigh between ¼ oz and 3/8 oz! The young mink are nursed for the first 5-6 weeks of life. The young stay with their mother until the fall.

Mink prefer to eat muskrats, but will also eat crayfish, fish, frogs, small snapping turtles, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, and even rabbits. They will eat as much food as possible at the sight of their kill and then they save the rest in caches back at their dens .

It takes 75 adult mink furs to make a full-length mink coat! Most of these animals come from mink farms where they are raised for their fur. The popularity of fur has declined over the years as people have learned the number of animals that are killed just to make one coat. The mink are certainly happy about that fashion trend!