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Many people associate the word mink with a beautiful tame-looking coat, but the interesting mammals behind these luxurious pelts are fierce little members of the weasel family. Mink are found in Northern Colorado, most recently spotted in Loveland.
These nocturnal, rather secretive animals are only seen occasionally. In March, Marshall and Jean Faber of Loveland got a close look at a mink in their southwest Loveland neighborhood on Ryan Gulch Reservoir.
"We've been living at this location for over 30 years and never seen a mink before," said Marshall Faber.
When one of the Fabers' neighbors was fixing stairs by the lake, he spotted the mink's den, Faber said, right before the mink emerged from the den. Another neighbor saw the animal running toward the Fabers' house and alerted them in time so that Marshall could get his camera ready. He captured several photos of the mink traveling along the shoreline.
Much of minks' food sources come from the water. They are fierce, true predators, killing anything from mice and frogs to muskrats and young beavers. They tend to kill more than they can eat and cache away the leftovers. Their chief predators include coyotes, red foxes and great horned owls, but the Division of Parks and Wildlife notes their biggest cause of death is combat with other mink.
Like most predators, they are opportunists. An article from the Berthoud Recorder in December 2010 described a mink attack on a resident's chicken coop, resulting in the loss of 25 members of the flock.
A mink's coat has two layers, designed to protect the animal from the cold water where it spends much of its time. Dense underfur lies beneath the outer layer of long, shiny hairs. Mink also secrete oil from the base of the hairs, helping to keep their coats water-repellent.
Mink are excellent swimmers and also have a fluid movement on land. They are sometimes described as looking like a toy slinky when bounding forward. Males are about 18-24 inches long, while females are a little shorter. Males in general are much larger at about 3 pounds, doubling the female average weight of 1.5 pounds.
While not large enough to harm a human, a rank odor produced from a mink's anal glands will repel any well-working nose. Though they do not spray like skunks, the foul odor is a deterrent in itself.
Mink show up in Northern Colorado in a variety of locations. Bob Nightwalker, manager of the WildKind department at the Larimer Humane Society says he receives about one mink into the shelter per year. Last year an orphaned juvenile mink was cared for and then released back into the wild.
"We see mink fairly frequently at Sylvan Dale between the upper bridge (CR 31D) and the little canyon," noted David Armstrong, resident naturalist at Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch in Loveland. "They also seem to hunt the margins of the ponds on the ranch grounds -- crawfish and maybe the occasional muskrat den, I presume."
Jeff Connor, natural resource specialist at Rocky Mountain National Park, said that 20 observations of mink have been recorded in the park since 1981.
"The observations seem to always be in riparian areas near streams and a lot seem to be in the Glacier Creek (and) Bear Lake area." Conner adds that a mink was also spotted last year near the Cub Lake Trailhead.
The beautiful coat of a real live mink can be an unexpected surprise. The Fabers can now add mink to elk, coyotes, foxes and other wildlife seen out their back door.
