Mink Den?

Mink nest
(Muller Field Station, Richmond, NY 09/2011)

Last weekend was the first session of my Wetland Mammals class. We stayed at the college's Muller Field Station. A few students were exploring and lifted a board only to have a mink dart out from under it and into the water. I took this photo and assume that the nest-like structure was made by the mink. I have read that mink are somewhat nomadic except during the breeding season and may move from one spot to the next each day. I am in the habit of only using the term den to refer to the place where young are raised, not simply the place you spend the night (or day). Perhaps I am being too fussy....

Mink scat
(Muller Field Station, Richmond, NY 09/2011)

In addition to the dried grass nest, there were several scats under the board as well. Now, I know I just wrote that mink MAY NOT use the same resting place for more than one night, but by default, that means that they MAY as well. This looked like a particularly good spot! It was within 5 feet of the channel, it had that nice drain pipe access and with the fields to the upland, it seemed to have it all. One of the scats was very runny. It was hard to photograph, but you can see it if you look closely tot he right of the obvious scat in the photo.



The students set eight camera traps and I set two of my own. We are due to check them in another week and I will post the results.

0827: My Favorite Marten, Epsisode II

Danika and Laura snowshoe along a marten trail

Just a few more marten-related photos. Marten are members of the weasel family and as such often travel in what is a called a 2x lope. When they do that, the front feet land near each other and then the rear feet land in the same holes leaving a "2 by 2"pattern.



Another highlight for me was seeing some of the den entrances for 0827. Elaina showed us one entrance at the base of a birch tree. She inserted the antenna cord and we clearly heard the beep beep beep that told us 0827 was home. The fancy word for conducting business (moving, eating, sleeping, etc) under the snow is "subnivean". The marten's den was subnivean and perhaps also under ground as well. The two entrances we viewed were within 20 feet of each other and I assumed they were connected underground.

Marten den

A final photo below shows another entrance that 0827 used the night we were visiting. What I love about this photo is that it doesn't just show the tracks coming and going but also clearly shows strike marks in the snow from the antenna on 0827's collar. I am guessing that this marten was caching some of the bait I used in front of the camera, so this may be an unusual amount of traffic for a single night.

One of 0827's den entrances