The European Mink Association has launched the project “Support for captive breeding and releases of the European mink”.

The European Mink Association has launched the project “Support for captive breeding and releases of the European mink”. with the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment with the intention of improving the status of the captive population and conservation of the European mink through releases of captive specimens, in addition to studying the use of captive breeding as a tool to improve the conservation status of the European mink population in the wild.

Captive breeding of the species has a low reproduction rate and difficulties that are linked to the need for a center with a high number of animals where breeding can be carried out with certain guarantees. This situation does not currently exist within the “Captive Breeding Program for the species”, so a greater number of trips must be made between the different collaborating centers, which implies a higher cost. On the other hand, due to the critical situation of the European mink in the wild, there is a need to improve its conservation status by releasing captive-bred specimens.

During the project, it is proposed to make a greater effort in breeding in order to be able to carry out release actions without affecting the viability of the program. Site selection is subject to the results of the eradication of the American mink (action C1 in the LIFE Lutreola Spain project) in the Cantabrian basins and in the Ebro river basin.

In addition, post-release success will be evaluated. To this end, intensive radio-monitoring will be carried out with the released specimens and the results will be evaluated in order to be able to program release actions in the coming years more effectively.