Individual feeding specialization in the European mink, Mustela lutreola and the American mink, M. vison in north-eastern Belarus
2001
Sidorovich, V.E. | Pikulik, M.M. (National Academy of Sciences, Minsk (Belarus). Vertebrate Predation Research Unit) | Macdonald, D.W. | Kruuk, H.
Individual feeding behaviour of the European mink Mustela lutreola and American mink M. vison inhabiting the upper reaches of the Lovat river, Belarus was investigated. Three out of the nine individual European minks studied were specialists on frogs. One European mink fed mostly on crayfish. The other five European minks studied were generalist predators at watersides. Three out of the ten individual American minks studied were micromammalian specialists; 86-92 % of their scats contained remains of small mammals. The other seven American minks were generalist predators. There was a positive correlation between the proportion of frogs and crayfish in the mink diets and the abundance of these prey in the habitats, but there was no such correlation with abundance of small mammals.
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