North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 06:22 PM 2/19/2007, Dianne wrote:
> I have been reading
> this chain on cats as predators, but no one has mentioned the native
> predators on rodents and birds-- mink, weasels, ferrets. They are
> relatives of  the martens that have been mentioned.   I
> daresay trapping mink and ferrets for their fur ( 'fitch" coat =
> ferret) decimated the predator population and gave cats a niche.
> I can remember seeing a weasel as a child on the farm in Indiana, but
> haven't seen or heard of any sightings since. 
> Sometimes we would lose chickens to weasels if we didn't shut the hen
> house door at night. And the one I saw was less than a foot long
> including the long tail- probably a 'least weasel'.


I've seen a couple of mink run over on the street in the last year -
right here on the edge of town, within a block of my office; there is a
nice little creek running alongside, about 50 yds from the street. 
I stopped and picked one up (yeah, I was always dragging roadkill home to
practice on when I was a kid.  But, before you get alarmed, I'm a
veterinary pathologist, not Jeffrey Dahmer!) for dissection last spring
and was pleased to find what I was looking for - several American Guinea
worms, Dracunculus insignis, encysted under its skin.  
I'd previously found some in a mink that was submitted for rabies
testing, and have had several submitted from dogs here in western
KY.
More info on D.insignis, here:

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12150_12220-27119--,00.html

So...if mink are present here in town, I'd hazard a guess they're
probably doing OK out in the country; at least in my little corner of the
world.

Louis L. "Lucky" Pittman, Jr., DVM
Veterinary Pathologist/ Dept. Chairman
Murray St. Univ.-Breathitt Veterinary Ctr.
Hopkinsville, KY