Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here. It's possible you've
Speaker 1: heard of a mink, and it's also possible that the
Speaker 1: thing that pops into your head when you hear that
Speaker 1: word is a fur coat. But of course, a natural
Speaker 1: fur coat is made of animal skins. In the parlance
Speaker 1: of our times, a mink is a coat, and astronomically
Speaker 1: expensive one at that, made of the pelts of a
Speaker 1: type of weasel, also called a mink, which is captured
Speaker 1: or raised in captivity for the purpose of providing rich
Speaker 1: people with cozy outerwear. But what makes mink for such
Speaker 1: a desirable material for glamorous jackets, and why we've been
Speaker 1: trapping and wearing minks since at least the eleventh century,
Speaker 1: is also what helps a mink survive in the wild.
Speaker 1: A two species of mink exists on the planet Earth today.
Speaker 1: The third, the c mink, is now extinct due to
Speaker 1: a couple of centuries of per secution by fur trappers.
Speaker 1: Both surviving species have thick, soft water repellent fur, and
Speaker 1: as did the extinct mink. Both the American mink and
Speaker 1: the critically endangered European mink are semi aquatic, meaning they
Speaker 1: stick close to waterways, streams, rivers, wetlands, lakes, etcetera, where
Speaker 1: they can find all the foods they like to eat
Speaker 1: best frogs, birds, clams, eggs, aquatic insects, and small animals
Speaker 1: like rabbits and mice. They love slinking around rocky river
Speaker 1: banks in the early morning and evening and during the
Speaker 1: heat of the day, repairing to their luxurious, multi chambered
Speaker 1: burrows lined with grass, fur, and feathers. They're extremely tricky
Speaker 1: to trap because they're smart and suspicious. But we humans are,
Speaker 1: if nothing else great devising ingenious ways of killing stuff,
Speaker 1: so we've managed to put mink in a precarious position.
Speaker 1: The American mink is doing pretty well in the wild.
Speaker 1: They can be found in parts of every state in
Speaker 1: the United States except air Zona, and aren't uncommon throughout
Speaker 1: their natural range. In fact, they're also not uncommon in
Speaker 1: other places in the world, including the traditional range of
Speaker 1: the European mink, which is native to Europe and Eurasia.
Speaker 1: American mink were brought to Europe in the early twentieth
Speaker 1: century in order to satisfy the European passion for fur garments,
Speaker 1: and by the nineteen fifties at least four hundred registered
Speaker 1: mink for farms existed in the UK Loane, all stocked
Speaker 1: with American mink, the species of choice for the fur industry,
Speaker 1: since they're larger bodied than the European species and their
Speaker 1: coats are a bit longer and denser. But it's perhaps
Speaker 1: predictably difficult to hold a weasel captive. And the American
Speaker 1: mink that had spent a few generations on European farms
Speaker 1: escaped and became naturalized citizens of Europe, and it turns
Speaker 1: out they were very aggressive towards the locals. A feral
Speaker 1: farm raised mink and their offspring began killing European mink
Speaker 1: and their kits before the article. This episode is based
Speaker 1: on how Stuff Work. Spoke with Dr Innigo Zubero Gortia,
Speaker 1: a researcher in the Department of Environmental Studies at ICARUS
Speaker 1: in Laurino, Spain. He said it is important to consider
Speaker 1: the feral American mink is not the same as native
Speaker 1: American mink in North America. A feral American mink is
Speaker 1: like a new species created by humans after decades of
Speaker 1: breeding in captivity. They do not behave in the same
Speaker 1: way as wild American mink in their native range. An
Speaker 1: example of altered behavior in feral American mink in Europe
Speaker 1: has to do with territory. Wild male animals of both
Speaker 1: species are normally very territorial and don't put up with
Speaker 1: other males sharing their area. Feral American mink, on the
Speaker 1: other hand, don't seem to mind sharing space with each other.
Speaker 1: Zabarro Gortia said. In this way, in rivers where it
Speaker 1: was once possible to find one European mink male in
Speaker 1: between three and four females, you can now find as
Speaker 1: many thirty American mink. The predation pressure in the area
Speaker 1: is extremely strong. As a result of this ecological debacle,
Speaker 1: the European mink is one of the most endangered animals
Speaker 1: in Europe. The population has plummeted by over fifty in
Speaker 1: the past decade, and although competition from the American mink
Speaker 1: certainly isn't helping matters, European mink are also hunted by
Speaker 1: humans and have long been the victims of human driven
Speaker 1: habitat loss. Activists and researchers are working against the clock
Speaker 1: to save the species. Meanwhile, mink farms flourish worldwide. Mink
Speaker 1: accounts for eight of the global fur trade, and fur
Speaker 1: is still a popular material in oaktor as recently as
Speaker 1: two thirds of major Fall fashion week shows worldwide included
Speaker 1: for the mink, fur industry in the United States grosses
Speaker 1: around three hundred million dollars a year. There are farms
Speaker 1: in twenty three states, but a few European countries outstrip
Speaker 1: America's farmed for production. Meanwhile, the mink for business is
Speaker 1: booming in China, a country with a lot of newly
Speaker 1: wealthy citizens in the market for luxury items, coupled with
Speaker 1: very few animal welfare regulations. But anti fur activists take
Speaker 1: note simply releasing farmed mink into the wild won't do
Speaker 1: the many favors. In two animal rights activists released between
Speaker 1: thirty thousand and forty thousand mink from a fur farm
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, most of the mink died immediately due to
Speaker 1: heat or killed each other when recollected in different social groupings.
Speaker 1: As with many issues, focusing on educating the public and
Speaker 1: contacting your governmental representatives to help reform laws can help
Speaker 1: the most. Today's episode is based on the article how
Speaker 1: Humans have Made a Mess of Mink? On how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com, written by Jocelyn Shields. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radi in partnership with hows Toworks
Speaker 1: dot com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more
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