Canadian bait to be used in Hebridean Mink project

Scottish Natural Heritage

A consignment of mink bait has been imported from Canada to meet the demands of a mink eradication project in the Western Isles.

The Hebridean Mink Project was set up with European funding just over two years ago to eradicate the non-native species from the Uists and significantly reduce their numbers in the south of Harris. Since then it has caught 421 mink and set up a number of studies to look at the ecology and habits of mink and how remaining animals react to eradication.

The mink are being eradicated because of the damage they cause to native wildlife, particularly the ground nesting birds of the Uists, many of which are protected under European conservation law.

An effective bait for luring mink into the traps is bait containing mink sent glands. Previously this has come from animals caught by the Project but production has been unable to keep up with demand and additional bait is having to be bought from Canada.

Project co-ordinator, Dr Sugoto Roy, said: "We use a variety of different bait, which in the past has predominantly been fish, in order to attract mink into the traps. It is inevitable using this method that other animals with a taste for fish, for example, rats and ferrets, will also find their way into the traps. Trapping these non-target species interrupts the mink trapping effort by spoiling bait and making traps unavailable to mink overnight. Bait containing mink scent glands has shown to be an effective means of attracting mink without also encouraging other species into the traps. However, with the number of traps now in use by the project standing at 2,400, we simply don't have enough of the scent gland bait to go around and are still using alternatives, such as fish and occasionally some of the rats we catch. The new consignment from Canada should enable us to further improve the efficiency of the trapping effort by catching more mink and fewer non-target species."

Meanwhile the project is also planning a repeat of a major concentrated trapping operation, carried out in the Uists in November. This will take place during the rutting season in the spring, concentrating on North Uist and the islands in the Sound of Harris. Around 15 to 20 trappers and more than 500 traps are expected to be deployed simultaneously in the operation.

A PhD study has also been set up as part of the project, to monitor the movements of mink, assess population densities and identify den sites and feeding areas, and to see how these change as populations are reduced. A partial cull of the study area, south of Tarbert in Harris, caught 31 in the two weeks, representing a third of the population in the study area. This will show how the remaining population reacts to eradication effort and will be of major importance to the project in future, helping to target trapping more efficiently, plan strategies and head off the spread of remaining animals.

Mink are not native to the Western Isles or even to the UK. They pose particular threats to wild birds as they will eat eggs, chicks and adult birds from internationally important bird sites. The Uists include some of Europe's most important bird sites and these are afforded protection under the EC Wild Birds Directive in designated Special Protection Areas (SPAs). The UK is required by the Directive to protect the interests of SPAs. As well as posing a serious threat to wildlife, they also have a damaging effect, directly or indirectly, on crofting, fish farming, tourism and fisheries. The mink situation is very much a shared problem and it is in all our interests to find a solution. Unfortunately the only permanent solution is eradication through a programme of humane lethal control.

The Hebridean Mink Project is bringing more than £1.65m of European, public and other funding to the Western Isles. Partners include Scottish Natural Heritage, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Scottish Executive, Central Science Laboratory, Western Isles Enterprise and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (the local authority), and the project is part funded by the EU LIFE Nature Fund.

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