Otter pic from today

[woosh]

Many thanks to all for the in depth explanations.

I have to say that I felt very privileged to be viewing them. It’s such a great feeling to see something in the wild that you haven’t seen before, Mink and Otter is a double for me. Double the feeling

Thanks to all again

Ian or Woosh (I answer to both)

[davecatt]

Hi woosh
Thanks for sharing this. I would suggest your sighting is worth recording with the Norfolk Wild Life Trust.

Its possible that the Otter is a young adult looking to set up its own territory and has recently moved into an area occupied by mink. Good news for the local Wild Life Trust.

I suspect the mink wont hang around long if the Otter stays in the area.

Dave

[Malx]

Originally Posted by woosh

It seemed like they were playing to me. Sat and watched them for about half an hour and there were no signs of any animosity towards each other.

Just a tupenny thought, but might your 'threatening' presence have forced these 2 wild species to co-exist there, momentarily?

[Fauna]

Originally Posted by valleyforge

Hi Ian, welcome from me too, and great observation and photos.

Whilst the text book view is that otters and mink don't get on, that's a bit of an over generalization. Athough I've never witnessed anything like this, I have observed otter and mink co-existing for a number of weeks on a fairly short stretch (~2 miles) of river, so it's not true to assume that where otter do drive out mink (don't have any personal experience as to whether they do or don't), that they do so aggressively or immediately.

Agree with you here. My place of work is on 434 acre reservoir, we have both Otter and Mink. There is deffinetly four Mink (possibly more) and two Otter (identifiable by their prints) resident on site. The Mink can be seen regularly throughout the year, two can be seen nearly daily hunting the dam wall. You will be surprized at the size of the fish that they are able to catch.

No one has yet observed the Otters for they are staying nocturnal, though there is plenty of evidence in the form of spraints and prints. These can be found in the usual places and i'm finding them daily. What i have found to be totally strange is that in the three years of me working here i have only found one Mink scat.

I can only surmise, but i believe the Mink are not displaying thier scats so that they don't draw to much attention from the Otter??

[woosh]

Originally Posted by Malx

Just a tupenny thought, but might your 'threatening' presence have forced these 2 wild species to co-exist there, momentarily?

I was quite some distance from them. The pictures were taken at the full extent of my "Bigma" lense zoom (Sigma 50-500mm). Whilst they probably did notice me, there was a river bank, a river and a large expanse of open water between us.

I think that if they found my presence "threatening" they wouldn't have stayed. Even when i walked away, i left them playing together quite happily

Ian

[kenny243]

Originally Posted by valleyforge

Hi Ian, welcome from me too, and great observation and photos.

Whilst the text book view is that otters and mink don't get on, that's a bit of an over generalization. Athough I've never witnessed anything like this, I have observed otter and mink co-existing for a number of weeks on a fairly short stretch (~2 miles) of river, so it's not true to assume that where otter do drive out mink (don't have any personal experience as to whether they do or don't), that they do so aggressively or immediately.

What should be borne in mind is that otter and mink, like most other mustelids, have a natural inclination for play ... and a greater inclination to sleep.

In fact, more than 90% of a mustelid's time will be taken up by sleep, interspersed by only short bouts of activity in hunting and/or play.

The easier it is to source food, the more time there is of course to sleep and play.

These mustelids are crespusular (that is active mainly around the twilight hours) rather than being strictly nocturnal (active at night) and so that is their main hunting/feeding period. Daytime activity is more often reserved then for sleep or play (or other boring housekeeping stuff and personal grooming).

As for territorialism, well perhaps I can expand upon the general understanding of that too. Both otters and mink are somewhat territorial only when it comes to other members of their own species and same sex.

By that I mean that the territories of males and females of either species will overlap, the males defending their patch and the females doing likewise for theirs. Outside of the breeding season however, the males and females of each species will just tend to avoid each other.

Where there is no great competition for food, and especially when no youngsters are being reared, there is of course no need for animosity between either species (or sexes).

In most instances where more than one mink, or more than one otter are observed together, it will more than likely be a female with her kits, or perhaps two sibling females who may stay together over winter.

At this time of year, males and females will however be starting to come together to mate, so you may have snapped a pre-breeding pairing, but its probably more likely that they are both females.

In conclusion then, I think you may have been very privileged indeed to have witnessed an opportunity for fun that both species just found too irresistible to leave, despite the presence of their 'cousins'.

You've explained things really well there. If animals read these text books, we'd have nothing to keep us interested would we?

I do quite a lot of work involving studying Mammal behaviour, and frequently witness things that would appear out of character for a particular species, so when describing animal behaviour, I always try to work on the basis of 'never say never'.
Thought there is evidence of Mink leaving an area as Otters move in, there is also evidence of them co existing quite happily along some watercourses.
I do think that the pics are very good, and it must have been great to witness.

Kenny243

[Gill Catton]

I wonder if what is being thought of as play is actually the mink staying out of the way of the otter (they are probably able to climb further up the tree, move faster as they are smalller and lighter) and the otter trying to harrass them into leaving (perhaps they are after the same handy riverside hollow to breed in.

I very much doubt that mink could be encouraged to leave easily, I doubt they would simply run from an otter especially if they are trying to set up a den and as these animals communicate in what sounds to us like cheerful squeaks and chirrups (but are noises used in agression) it might have been less play and more an aggressive interaction associated with defence of breeding sites.

Also I think if it was just idle play they may all have vanished before you got a good look especially the otter (which are usually - but not always- quite shy) because perhaps the benefit of 'play' between species would not have outweighed the risk of an encounter with a human whereas defence of something as important as a breeding site/ territory might.

The lighter coloured mink is also quite interesting, it almost has polecat type markings - something I've not seen before.

On the whole yes a very very lucky encounter
Just thoughts!

[Rob_D]

Originally Posted by Gill Catton

The lighter coloured mink is also quite interesting, it almost has polecat type markings - something I've not seen before.

I agree, though it could just be a trick of the light. There are some lighter colored American Mink photos on the web that look a bit similar - some sort of indistinct facial pattern.

Could it be a hybrid American Mink x Polecat? I know European Mink hybridize with Polecats, so perhaps American Mink can also. No idea what they'd look like. Seems unlikely, especially as there might not be many Polecat in Norfolk (yet), but who knows?

Woosh - you were very lucky. Thanks for sharing.

[nigel_b]

Excellent spot. Where I am near the Stour there co-exists an almost identical light grey mink and several otters. I'm just in the middle of reading "The Natural History of Otters" by Paul Chanin (1985) to try and better understand the interaction between the two. Great information in this thread though, thanks!