Abstract
The American mink (Neovison vison) was introduced in Europe for fur farming in the 1920s and feral populations were formed due to escapes or intentional releases to the wild thereafter. Nowadays, the species is widely distributed across much of the continent, and is considered the main cause of extinction of the European mink (Mustela lutreola). In Spain, the first populations of the American mink were formed in the 1980s and since then a continuous expansion in their range has been observed. We describe the expansion process of the American mink based on reports of its distribution in the literature, focusing particularly on its increasing overlap with the distribution of the native, endangered European mink. Over the 27 years (1985–2012), the distribution area of non-native mink in Spain increased by 17 times, with an average annual increment of 16.5% and no significant variation among populations. By 2012, a quarter of continental Spain was occupied by the American mink and its presence was confirmed in one-third of the distribution area of the European mink. The status of native mink has worsened drastically in Spain over the last years and urgent conservation measures are required to stop further spread of the American mink.
Acknowledgments
The study was made possible thanks to the great effort of the personnel of the Spanish Environmental Ministry, Tragsatec, Regional Governments of La Rioja, Navarre, Castile and León, Cantabria, Aragón, Valence, Madrid, Castile and La Mancha, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, the Basque Country and the European Mink Association. We are also grateful to Mirenka Ferrer, Maribel Perez, Santiago Palazón, Tiit Maran, Sisco Mañas and Jorge Gonzalez for their kind help and especially to Lauren Harrington for useful comments and manuscript correction. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments too.
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©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Obituary
- In memoriam Jamshid Darvish
- Museology/history of sciences
- On the shoulders of giants: Reginald Innes Pocock and integrative mammal research in museums and zoos
- Ecology
- Space use and movement of jaguar (Panthera onca) in western Paraguay
- A review of the status of the Western polecat Mustela putorius: a neglected and declining species?
- Diversity of primates and other mammals in the middle Purus basin in the Brazilian Amazon
- Rapid expansion of the American mink poses a serious threat to the European mink in Spain
- New reports of the presence and ecology of the Sumatran striped rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri) in South Sumatra
- Reproduction of the golden jackal (Canis aureus) outside current resident breeding populations in Europe: evidence from the Czech Republic
- Dung-pile use by guanacos in eastern Patagonia
- Conservation
- Stable isotope analysis as a minimal-invasive method for dietary studies on the highly endangered Common hamster (Cricetus cricetus)
- New localities, an update on the conservation status and ethnographic notes for the dingiso tree kangaroo, Dendrolagus mbaiso Flannery, Boeadi et Szalay (Diprotodontia: Macropodidae)
- Biogeography
- First record of the Egyptian fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus (Pteropodidae), from Kastellorizo island, Greece
- Recent records of dhole (Cuon alpinus, Pallas 1811) in Uttarakhand, Western Himalaya, India
- Evolutionary biology
- First records of hypopigmentation disorders in the Peters’ ghost-faced bat Mormoops megalophylla (Chiroptera, Mormoopidae)
- Historical record of Holochilus vulpinus (Rodentia, Sigmodontinae) from northern Patagonia, Argentina
- Taxonomy/phylogeny
- On the identity of Didelphis marsupialis Linnaeus 1758
- Annual reviewer acknowledgement
- Reviewer acknowledgement Mammalia volume 82 (2018)
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Obituary
- In memoriam Jamshid Darvish
- Museology/history of sciences
- On the shoulders of giants: Reginald Innes Pocock and integrative mammal research in museums and zoos
- Ecology
- Space use and movement of jaguar (Panthera onca) in western Paraguay
- A review of the status of the Western polecat Mustela putorius: a neglected and declining species?
- Diversity of primates and other mammals in the middle Purus basin in the Brazilian Amazon
- Rapid expansion of the American mink poses a serious threat to the European mink in Spain
- New reports of the presence and ecology of the Sumatran striped rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri) in South Sumatra
- Reproduction of the golden jackal (Canis aureus) outside current resident breeding populations in Europe: evidence from the Czech Republic
- Dung-pile use by guanacos in eastern Patagonia
- Conservation
- Stable isotope analysis as a minimal-invasive method for dietary studies on the highly endangered Common hamster (Cricetus cricetus)
- New localities, an update on the conservation status and ethnographic notes for the dingiso tree kangaroo, Dendrolagus mbaiso Flannery, Boeadi et Szalay (Diprotodontia: Macropodidae)
- Biogeography
- First record of the Egyptian fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus (Pteropodidae), from Kastellorizo island, Greece
- Recent records of dhole (Cuon alpinus, Pallas 1811) in Uttarakhand, Western Himalaya, India
- Evolutionary biology
- First records of hypopigmentation disorders in the Peters’ ghost-faced bat Mormoops megalophylla (Chiroptera, Mormoopidae)
- Historical record of Holochilus vulpinus (Rodentia, Sigmodontinae) from northern Patagonia, Argentina
- Taxonomy/phylogeny
- On the identity of Didelphis marsupialis Linnaeus 1758
- Annual reviewer acknowledgement
- Reviewer acknowledgement Mammalia volume 82 (2018)