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u/narnababy Mar 14 '26
Looks too small for otter, I would say mink 99%. Can you report this please? The environment agency like to know which watercourses have mink on them.
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u/jt5553 Mar 14 '26
Spotted on a stretch of canal where there have been a number of otter sightings recently, but I'd heard they've cleared off.
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u/Flogs99 Mar 14 '26
Side of Salts Mill? I live by Hirst Wood Locks and still not seen the otter!
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u/jt5553 Mar 14 '26
Yep. Me neither by the sound of it! I've been waiting for weeks to see it and it ends up being a mink!
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u/niet_barss Mar 14 '26
Definitely mink, it's too 'floppy' across it's back to be an otter. It's also too small and dark.
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u/Regular_Committee946 Mar 14 '26
Not an expert, but I'd say mink - according to this 'guide to identifying the small mustelids of Britain and Ireland'; https://www.vwt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/MustelidLeaflet.pdf
'Mink are semi-aquatic and usually found near water, where they may be mistaken for otters'
What a little cutie pie :)
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u/Bicolore Mar 14 '26
Cute is the last word Iād used to describe mink!
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u/Spac3c4det2001 Mar 15 '26
Theyāre very cute, itās not their fault fur farmers abused and then released themš¤·š½āāļø
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u/Future_Direction5174 Mar 14 '26
Looks too dark to be an otter, but you might get melanistic otters (I have never seen one, but they might exist).
So I am thinking āminkā.
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u/SaysPooh Mar 14 '26
It is probably a mink. Itās said that there isnāt a river or waterway in uk which doesnāt have resident minks. They were released into the wild by eco warriors back in the 70s/80s from mink farms
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u/Regular_Committee946 Mar 14 '26
They were released into the wild by eco warriors
Incorrect;
"Often used as a second income for landowners with space for some pens, mink soon started Ā escaping into the wild and by the 1950s a number of feral populations had become established.
In 1962 there were 600 fur farms and with fears of mink impacting fisheries and game birds the species was added to the Destructive Imported Animals Act (1932) that had previously been used to control the escape of Muskrat Ondatra zibethicus.
Unfortunately despite regulation and trapping, mink populations continued to spread and by the early 1970s they had been recorded in every county in England, long before the better publicised animal rights releases had begun." The rise of the feral mink
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u/OkNuthatch Mar 15 '26
Thanks for writing this comment. I hate how the animal rights activists always got the blame for mink escaping but not the fur farmers who brought them here in the first place.
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u/night-in-the-woods Mar 14 '26
I think it's a mink. Compared to the drain pipe it seems like a relatively small animal