Think Mink!

Internet friend Sandra Baker-Hinton is an acclaimed artist and gallery owner living on Amelia Island. She's also “Senior Volunteer Turtle Lady” for the Ft. Clinch Park Service, and she writes a personal newsletter filled with photographs of the Park critters and scenery that I am lucky enough to receive. The other day, she forwarded some photos taken by a friend of hers, Pat Foster-Turley, showing an exciting find at the Park. In case you do not recognize the little guy in the photo below - it's a mink!


I did a little research and found that indeed, minks can be found in the salt marshes of the north Gulf coast and the north Atlantic coast down to Ft. Mantanzas. A threatened subspecies called the Everglades Mink is found in south Florida. (If you search on Florida mink, most of the hits refer to either coats or a rock band. However, I've included a Conservancy of Southwest Florida link below that provides some critter information.)

Is this cute, or what!

I asked Pat if I might share her photos with you, and she graciously agreed. Pat is a wildlife biologist with a specialty in otters - follow the link below to read more about her. Her husband is a Ranger at the Park, so I can imagine there is not much that goes on there, critter-wise, that they don't know about! She writes a Wild Ways newspaper column - when she writes up her mink sighting, she's going to send me the link and I'll post about it. Meanwhile, she says: I saw the mink around where a turtle nest was marked, but it was not after any eggs at the time. It was cruising along hunting the embankment where lots of grasshoppers and small crabs were evident. At one point it looked to me like it ate a crab.

Pat included her email address so folks can contact her directly for photos or more information - pfosterturley@yahoo.com . Our thanks to her for sharing her experience and her photos with us!

Links:
Sandra Baker-Hinton
Amelia SanJon Gallery
Florida Minks
Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D