The European Mink (Mustela lutreola) on Kunashir Island: Confirmed Survival 40 years After Introduction

Abstract

Abstract. In the early 1980s, the European mink (Mustela lutreola) was introduced on Kunashir [Kunashiri] Island in the Kuril [Chishima] Islands in order to preserve it in a region where its main competitor, the American mink (Neovison vison), is absent. We present records of the European mink on Kunashir in 2014–2021. In 23 cases, mink footprints were recorded on the snow or on sandbanks; in other nine cases, the animals were recorded visually or using camera traps. Camera trap photos reliably confirm the existence of a European mink population far from its severely contracted native range. The data were used to compose the dataset “Database of the European mink [Mustela lutreola (Linnaeus, 1761)] occurrence on Kunashir Island” that was transferred to the open international repository GBIF.