Neovision vision                                              Photo Pat Foster-Turley ©

Mink have a very characteristic way of moving--they travel in low sinuous bounds, then stop occasionally to sit up on their hind legs to get a better view of their surroundings. They swim well and usually live near water, along steams and rivers or in salt marshes.

These weasel-like animals are also sometimes seen on beaches, as in the photo above taken at Fort Clinch State Park, where they search through seaweed piles for dead crabs and fish, but in other areas they feed on frogs, birds, crustaceans, insects, reptiles and small mammals.

Mink usually spend the day in a den that can be a hole in a stream bank or among the roots of a large tree, emerging in late afternoon to begin hunting. Mink weigh about 4 pounds and are roughly 2 feet long from nose to tail tip, but they have a reputation as serious predators and readily attack larger prey including water birds and ducks.

In Florida mink are found in two distinct regions — the Everglades where they endangered — and in central and north Florida, particularly in salt marshes of the Big Bend area of northeast Florida.

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