Killer mink hunt spreads in push to save native seabirds

THE hunt is being widened for an alien invader that is preying on native wildlife. Efforts are continuing to wipe out American mink on Lewis and Harris, but the net is to be widened to tackle the animals' progress on Mull and Iona.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is funding a study to determine the extent of the mink population and assess the impact the species has had on native wildlife, particularly internationally important seabirds.

The study will lay the foundations for a control project expected to start next year or early 2009, if funding is found.

Andrew Campbell, SNH's operations manager, said: "An unfortunate legacy of 20th-century mink farming, this unrelenting predator has spread across Argyll, posing a major threat to ground-nesting birds by preying on their chicks and eggs.

"On Mull and Iona mink are becoming a common sight, with many seabird colonies along the coastline being decimated."

Voluntary mink trapping has taken place on both islands for a number of years. The study will build on this work by highlighting areas where additional control is needed.

Mr Campbell added: "When SNH last held a public meeting on Mull we received a strong message that mink control, and, if possible, complete eradication, was high on the community's wish list.

"Establishing a mink control strategy for the islands will not only provide the foundations for safeguarding ground-nesting birds such as guillemots and common terns, but it could also benefit islanders who lose domestic poultry to mink."

The study will be carried out by Dr Suguto Roy, of the Central Science Laboratory, who was project manager of the Hebridean Mink Project on Uist and Harris for five years.

He will give a talk on the issue next week during Mull and Iona Wild Isles Week.

James Hilder, of the Mull and Iona Community Trust, said: "We are delighted that SNH have taken on board the views of residents and commissioned this study, as we have been receiving correspondence on Mull and Iona's mink problems for many years."

SNH has also revealed recently that its efforts on Mull and Iona will help stop mink reaching the Treshnish Islands, three miles from Mull and a haven for seabirds such as puffins, storm petrels, guillemots, razorbills and Manx shearwaters.

It is feared the semi-aquatic and highly effective predator could reach the islands accidentally on visiting boats and devastate the ground-nesting bird populations.

Mink were introduced to the Western Isles in the 1950s and 1960s in attempts at commercial farming in Lewis. When that failed, the animals were freed, or escaped, and spread rapidly.

Up to 10,000 adult mink are thought to have colonised the islands, with several hundred in the Uists.

The voracious animals have been blamed for killing poultry, raiding fish farms and threatening bird colonies by eating chicks and eggs.

A cull began in 2001 and 1.65 million has been spent purging more than 200 animals from North and South Uist and Benbecula.

A second phase, costing 2.5 million over the next five years, aims to eradicate the species from Lewis and Harris.

A recent report indicated the purge was working, with birds breeding again in areas where mink had been killed off.

Work is also being done on the uninhabited island of Taransay, location for the Castaway TV show, off Harris, to study the habits of mink and help the eradication project.

American mink were included this year on a list of alien species that are being targeted for eradication because of their effect on native animals and birds.