A Mr Niall King who hails from Dublin is a regular visitor to Connemara for the last thirty years and in fact owns a house close to Bunowen Castle, Niall is a natural lover of nature, hence his keen sense of observation.

For the last few years in the lake beside him he noticed a decline of baby ducks and other water birds, for the last three years he noticed a black animal swimming in the said lake and thought that it was only an otter (Protected), however a few days ago he saw the said same creature, & having read lately in the local papers of the problems of the havoc that the mink are causing, he become much more vigilant, two days ago the animal swam very close to the shore with his kids, the creature stared at him showing teeth almost with defiance, that’s when he was advised to get in touch with me, Niall duly did so and was able to give him and show him how to set a trap, the next morning he rang me to say he thinks he has caught a mink, I drove straight over and warned him not to do anything until I got there.

Sure enough he had caught a young female, we duly dealt with it by drowning, to shoot it would be a mistake as the shot residue remains on the cage for some time, which would be a deterrent from any other mink in entering for the bait. The point of my story is here is some one always on the look out for nature and was able to set a trap on habitat runs and I would like to use this example of observation to tell other people to do the same and make contact with anybody within the area who has some knowledge of these vial creatures. I have just placed an order for more traps and would be more than glad to help set them for anybody who spots mink. The one consolation for Niall and his capture of this one female, as the female breeds once a year in May with one litter of kits of 8, think about it possible 8 minks out of the scene. I have put some photos of the trapping on the website just to give an idea what we should all be doing with this mink crisis. I spoke to Conall Hawkins from the Galway University this very morning on his survey re the mink. I am hoping that I will be able to help him in his continuing work, particuley with the carcasses Mink Survey

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As part of the ‘NUI, Galway Mink Control Survey
2007’. This survey is targeted at people who are most likely to have suffered economic loss due to mink predation and those controlling mink populations in Ireland; gun club members, anglers, fish farmers, and conservation organisations amongst others. . The American mink is a medium-sized Mustelid (member of the weasel family), being slightly smaller than a cat. This carnivorous native of North America is associated with lakes, rivers and coastlines, habitats which are abundant in Ireland. Its diet is composed mainly of small mammals, fish and birds. It was introduced to Ireland in the 1950’s for fur-farming purposes, but through accidental and deliberate releases they have become established throughout Ireland. This alien predator is controlled for a number of reasons; to protect livestock, game animals and vulnerable ground-nesting birds. The purpose of this survey is to estimate the current level of damage caused by the mink to economic interests in Ireland, the methods and extent of mink control, and the effectiveness of such measures. The final aim of this study is to develop techniques which are most efficient at reducing the damage caused by mink.I am also collecting carcasses of mink from control programmes and would appreciate if you could save any carcasses you acquire and I will make arrangements to collect them, any additional information or queries are welcome and appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Conall Hawkins
https://www.surveymonkey.com