Diet of the American mink Neovison vison in an agricultural landscape in western Poland

Title:

Diet of the American mink Neovison vison in an agricultural landscape in western Poland

Creator:

Keawczyk, Agata J., Bogdziewicz, Michał, and Czyz, Michał J.

Identifier:

https://cdk.lib.cas.cz/client/handle/uuid:4fa0d083-33dc-4e9a-8603-53e0dd0ddfc4
uuid:4fa0d083-33dc-4e9a-8603-53e0dd0ddfc4

Subject:

invasive species, feeding ecology, farmland, predation, and Mustelidae

Type:

article, model:article, and TEXT

Description:

We studied the diet of the American mink (Neovison vison) in small artificial watercourses located in a farmland area of the valley of the River Barycz in Poland. Rodents, mainly Microtus spp., were the most frequent prey identified, occurring in 88.3 % of all analyzed mink scat. Minks also fed willingly on fish, birds and amphibians, whereas insects, crayfish and reptiles accounted for only a small part of the biomass of food consumed. The food niche breadth of the mink’s diet was wide, and varied significantly between seasons; in spring and autumn minks preyed mainly on rodents and fish, while the winter and summer diets consisted of a broad characterization of prey items. The proportion of mammals in the diet also decreased significantly during the summer months. These patterns differ from those previously reported in Europe, and demonstrate the plasticity of the mink diet across habitats.

Language:

English

Rights:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
policy:public

Source:

Folia zoologica | 2013 Volume:62 | Number:4

Harvested from:

CDK

Metadata only:

false