Driving along the sunny road on my way to Criccieth last week I was surprised by a heart-lifting and exciting sight. Out of the hedge by the
side of the road, tumbling helter-skelter into the dusty kerbside, came four dark
brown mink cubs which are sometimes called kits.
They seemed to be playing a game of leapfrog or touch-tag, but
whatever their game was they were enjoying themselves, scrapping in the
dust in the sunshine. I stopped the car in the middle of the road, got out, and
watched them for the all too brief minute or two that they were in view. What a
beautiful site, nature at its most natural.
They were probably descended from escapees from one of the
mink farms that used to be in the area until they were finally banned in 2000.
These mink were dark brown, a sure sign that they are from a line that has been
in the wild for some time, maybe even the 1920’s when mink farming was at its
height in the UK .
Yes, they may have been almost domesticated once but I guess that they deserve
to be called wild these days. Not native though; all mink in the UK are
descended from the American mink.
Anyway, they showed off for me for a while then three of
them disappeared back into the hedge, vanishing in an instant. The remaining
kit stopped, stood up on his back legs and seemed to look around as if to say
‘where have they gone?’ Then he too slipped back into the undergrowth.
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