How do you trap mink on an uninhabited Wester Ross island?
Mink monitoring and control officer for the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative, Greg Miller, has shared his experience monitoring live capture traps for American mink on Isle Martin
The Isle Martin is part of the Summer Isles archipelago in Wester Ross, located about 3 miles north of Ullapool. The island is owned and maintained by The Isle Martin Trust and is uninhabited but seasonally accessible by a small ferry. Isle Martin is a recognised bird sanctuary but unfortunately also visited by the invasive non-native American mink, which prey on the vulnerable native birds which live there. Greg Miller, Mink Monitoring and Control Officer with the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative, has been monitoring live-capture traps with the help of the local community and recently has had to visit the island on short notice when the traps have been triggered. Find out more from Greg about how he travelled over to the island on cold January day with the help of the Ullapool Sea Savers, followed by another trip just a few weeks later.
I was preparing for a day on the water, skippering the Ullapool Sea Savers boat for the Native Oyster Restoration project, when I got the ping from the remoti located on the Isle Martin. Isle Martin is a community owned island which is at the entrance of Loch Broom; I’ve had two mink traps on the island for a number of months but this was the first time that one had been triggered. The custodians of the island had approached me to see if it would be possible to place traps on the island as they had noticed a steep decline in bird life over the years, with the occasional mink spotted. Mink are not the only pressures causing the sea birds (and birds in general) to decline but they sure don’t help – and it would be a step in the right direction to alleviate this added pressure.
It was going to be a cold one with the mercury hovering around freezing in the day and nose-diving at night, making for a picture postcard day, but one for wrapping up warm. I had a few jobs to do on the water before I could get to the trap. When I got to the boat the mooring ropes were frozen solid after continuous days of cold weather and the boat was full of snow that needed to be moved – deep snow can dangerously unbalance a boat. With the jobs on the water done it was time to head to the island, with Ullapool Sea Savers accompanying me for the trip. The island is a quiet place at the best of times but with snow and the light fading it felt even quieter. The snow was pristine apart from some geese prints and scat and I was wondering if the trap was triggered at all – maybe the cold had got to the remoti?
The trap was located in the centre of the island at the back of the old abandoned settlement that used to house the mill and old herring curing station. When this island was bustling with life, they tried to make a paddock by draining the few flat areas and walling them in. Where the drain met the wall and ran underneath, this I thought, made the ideal place to intercept a mink if they were to travel across the island. As I approached it became clear that I was correct as in the silence I could hear the snow and the vegetation I had used to cover the trap rustling – indicating that something had indeed been captured. I slowly approached and confirmed that it was a mink. Once I had humanely dispatched the animal I took measurements and photos of its teeth, which can help to estimate age. Then it was time to head back to the mainland as the sun had already disappeared below the hill and the temperature was dropping quickly.
As it happens I was back to the island in February, only a few weeks later, to dispatch another mink that triggered the very same trap behind the settlement. As I was not skippering the Ullapool Sea Savers boat this time I accessed the island via The Isle Martin Trust work boat located at Ardmair jetty, where the ferry to the island departs from in season. It’s always good when working in these remote locations that there are a number of volunteers who can assist – with the help of John McIntyre and the rest of the Isle Martin Trust members monitoring the traps, this makes control work on the island a viable option.
Greg will continue to monitor traps on the Isle Martin with the help of the local community. Trapping on an uninhabited island is no easy feat, and we are grateful to everyone who has helped in these efforts including The Isle Martin Trust and Ullapool Sea Savers.
