Mink: NE Ohio

[danny]

Early in the year, in front of work, I saw a roadkill that I could not immediately identify from personal experience. It was dark, near black, with a small white spot on either the chest or face. I can no longer remember. I could only assume that it could be a Mink. I researched them and what I saw indeed seemed to have been a Mink. I put that out of my mind for a while. About 2-3 months later I see another animal run out of the woods within about 100 ft. of the roadkill Mink. It was also another Mink. I am 56 and have never seen one in the wild. I have lived in this area my whole life. Are Mink numbers suddenly increasing, or is it just some kind of fluke that I have never seen one until early this year?

Danny

 

[timeout]

Early in the year, in front of work, I saw a roadkill that I could not immediately identify from personal experience. It was dark, near black, with a small white spot on either the chest or face. I can no longer remember. I could only assume that it could be a Mink. I researched them and what I saw indeed seemed to have been a Mink. I put that out of my mind for a while. About 2-3 months later I see another animal run out of the woods within about 100 ft. of the roadkill Mink. It was also another Mink. I am 56 and have never seen one in the wild. I have lived in this area my whole life. Are Mink numbers suddenly increasing, or is it just some kind of fluke that I have never seen one until early this year?

Danny

Someone from your area will have to answer the question if populations are rising, but with depressed fur prices of most species, trapping is most certainly lower than normal. According to the report on Fur Harvester's April auction, mink averaged $5.73 with a top of $10.50. 22% of the mink offering remained unsold.

 

[WyleWD]

Early in the year, in front of work, I saw a roadkill that I could not immediately identify from personal experience. It was dark, near black, with a small white spot on either the chest or face. I can no longer remember. I could only assume that it could be a Mink. I researched them and what I saw indeed seemed to have been a Mink. I put that out of my mind for a while. About 2-3 months later I see another animal run out of the woods within about 100 ft. of the roadkill Mink. It was also another Mink. I am 56 and have never seen one in the wild. I have lived in this area my whole life. Are Mink numbers suddenly increasing, or is it just some kind of fluke that I have never seen one until early this year?

Danny

I'm about 2 1/2 hours south west of you and around a decade older and being raised in the country side I used income from trapping to fund my firearms and gas money habits while growing up. I only caught two mink in my years of trapping and never saw a live one until well into my twenties. In the last 8 years I've lived near a pond and seen a couple, but with absolutely no regularity. In my observations, mink are the masters of now ya see em and now ya don't and no telling when or if you'll see them again. And the same could be said about weasels, which mink are a family member of if I recall correctly. JMO. WD

 

[NorCalMikie]

Back quite a few years, something got in one night and killed about 20 of my chickens.
Just bit them and left them.
I spent a few long night keeping watch then gave up on that idea. Set a live trap with one of the kills and a couple of days later, caught a Mink. Dark brown and not too big.
Old timers said at one time they did a lot of trapping in the creek at the back of my property. Lots of Mink.
Thought about keeping the Mink for the kids till it tried to chew up the stick that I stuck in the trap. Long rope with the trap under the creek water till the bubbles quit coming. Lots of fox but no more Mink that I know of.

 

[danny]

I'm about 2 1/2 hours south west of you and around a decade older and being raised in the country side I used income from trapping to fund my firearms and gas money habits while growing up. I only caught two mink in my years of trapping and never saw a live one until well into my twenties. In the last 8 years I've lived near a pond and seen a couple, but with absolutely no regularity. In my observations, mink are the masters of now ya see em and now ya don't and no telling when or if you'll see them again. And the same could be said about weasels, which mink are a family member of if I recall correctly. JMO. WD

I do not believe I have ever seen a Weasel. At one time, when I was maybe eight ot ten, I thought I had seen a Weasel running across the road from a distance, but now I think that it might have been a Red Squirrel.

 

[Trooper836]

I trap some just for the fun of it more than anything. There isn't really any money to be made. I would imagine you have the number of mink that the area will support. They stir at night mostly, so sightings are not very common. They are a predator and one of their favorites are muskrats.

 

[Jim Hankins]

I usually see about 1 a year in daylight, and 3-4 after dark while coon hunting.Wife saw one catch and kill a young rabbit in daylight this summer.

 

[OmegaRed]

I live in NE Ohio. I've seen them before. Not super common, but I think that's mainly due to their natural movements than anything. Last time I saw one was ice fishing on a private pond/lake.

 

[Bangs OH]

Now that you mentioned it, it does seem like I’ve seen more mink here in the middle if the state in recent years. Found one a few years back walking around the weirs of a tank at the treatment plant; lowered the water level so it didn’t get swept down the drain and prodded it to jump out, but he was back the next day so I said the hell with it. Wife noticed one running across the road just recently, and I’ve crossed paths with more than one around the farm in the past few years; might even have a picture of one swimming across a creek to show. I can remember finding the rare weasel when checking my brother’s trap line decades ago, but we never caught a mink — that would have been a big deal back then.

 

[AWS]

I used to trap a lot back in the 70's and 80's and would spent at least a month running open water traplines by canoe on rivers in N. MN and rarely saw any mink but would catch about 30 every season. later after things froze up I would see tracks and would catch them trail setting and at springs but again rarely ever saw them running around.

 

[gambleone]

I live in pa just across the state line near Youngstown. I saw a mink scurry across the frozen
snow this last winter. I actually live at a place that used to be a mink farm years ago. Farmers around here had problems with the mink getting their chickens.

 

[MS50]

Wild mink average about 2lbs. Farm bred mink can be 2-3 times that heavy. The one's I see around here in N Central OH are definitely farm escapees. From a distance they look like small otters. If sighted passing through during the day, there's a good chance it's an escapee.

 

[1911nut]

I was fly fishing a small stream that flowed through hay meadows, when I got to a meander bend 20 feet in front of me a mink appeared and slipped into the creek. Five seconds later he came up in the same spot with a small brown trout and disappeared in the tall grass.

I continued on fishing the deeper part of the bend where a 6 inch browny took my fly. As I stripped the line in to land him he put up quite a tussle, surprisingly strong fish for his size I thought… When I got him to the shallow edge my 6” trout was a fat brown trout at least 24”! Then I saw the little brown sideways in the big guys mouth. He held on till he was almost out of the water then swam off. The little fish didn’t survive.

I've also seen mink along rocky lake shores.

 

[ebb]

I was sitting in the in in a chair in the driveway at my cousins in Johnson City Tenn. and saw a mink run from the pasture up to the house and circle the house and head to the creek. I had never seen one either. Looked like a small otter.

 

[sjoliat]

About five years ago I saw what turned out to be a mink on the shore at Atwood Lake. Didn't know what it was at the time, had to research it online. At 49, that was a first for me, and I've spent a fair amount of time outdoors.

 

[danny]

About five years ago I saw what turned out to be a mink on the shore at Atwood Lake. Didn't know what it was at the time, had to research it online. At 49, that was a first for me, and I've spent a fair amount of time outdoors.

I also had to research the first roadkill one online to be sure that my hunch of it being a Mink was correct.

Danny

 

[wbm]

On an island off the South Carolina coast three years ago I saw an animal come out of the large rocks that had been placed for erosion control. I did not know what it was but I knew in all the years I had been in that area I had never seen it's like before. Took a photo and went online....it was a Mink! On an island off coast of SC yet?!
Yep. Apparently, at one time there were lot's of mink along the Atlantic coast.

 

[lb-ft]

1990, Iron River in Michigan’s UP, saw a mink in broad daylight. It wasn’t too bothered by us. My brother made a plaster cast of its tracks.

 

[snert]

Regular sightings in Central NY. I caught a few as incidentals when trapping muskrats. 110 Conibear on a rat slide or at a creek hole, or under a cut back corner of a creek, up and under. They follow the little trails and the small holes along creekbeds, similar to a cat, only they love water.

 

[AccelR8]

I know a guy that builds break walls and such along the Lake Erie shore west of Cleveland. He said mink are "all over" along the lake shore and they see them "all the time."