Mink Behavior

Breeding

• Mink breed in secure dens, either in naturally occurring riverbank crevices, the repossessed homes of other river mammals such as beavers, or burrows they have dug themselves. The mink cubs stay with their mothers for several months after weaning, during which time they learn the hunting techniques and strategies they will need as adults

Hunting

• Mink are obligate carnivores like cats. This means their diet consists entirely of animal foods. Mink eat a wide variety of small vertebrates, including fish, rodents, frogs, snakes and rabbits. Being excellent swimmers, mink can dive to depths of over 16 feet in pursuit of fish and other aquatic animals.

Social

• Mink are mostly solitary and highly territorial. Most carnivores are territorial animals, primarily because one of the main factors determining an individual's survival is the food supply and animal food is not normally as abundant as plant material. Male mink tend to have large territories that overlap the smaller territories of a number of females. They communicate with scent, body language and sounds. When content, mink make a purring sound.

Defense

• At a length of a little over a foot, not including the tail, mink are small enough to be the prey of several larger carnivores, such as wolves and bobcats. American minks defend themselves against threats by secreting and spraying a pungent liquid in the manner of skunks, although they are unable to aim the spray.

In Captivity

• The American mink is bred for its fur on a commercial scale. There has been no selection for behavioral traits, as there is with most other domestic animals including dogs, cats and farm animals, and captive mink display the behavior of wild mink when they have the opportunity. Escaped mink rapidly revert to natural behavior, and those that survive are almost indistinguishable from wild ones in behavioral terms. The intensive conditions of fur farms limit the display of natural behavior, often resulting in signs of intense stress in the animals, such as constant pacing or swaying.