The use of chemical markers for the identification of farm escapees in feral mink populations

Marcin Brzeziński,Ingeborga Jarzyna,Andrzej Zalewski,Małgorzata Suska-Malawska,Agnieszka Niemczynowicz

doi:10.1007/s10646-014-1213-y

Marcin Brzeziński, Ingeborga Jarzyna + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-014-1213-y

Copy DOI

Abstract

Variations in the contaminant burden in feral and ranch mink, resulting from differences in their diet, may permit the identification of farm escapees. However, this is only possible in the case of contaminants that accumulate to significantly different levels in the two groups of animals. The main objective of this study was to identify chemical markers whose concentrations differ between feral and ranch mink, by analyzing the accumulation of 13 chemical elements in liver and kidney samples. Total mercury levels were up to 15-fold higher in kidney, and up to 7-fold higher in liver of feral mink compared with ranch mink. The majority of feral mink samples analyzed for mercury, contained concentrations that ranged from 1 to 5 μg/g in kidney (68 %) and from 1 to 5 μg/g in liver (70 %). In comparison, the organs of ranch mink had significantly lower levels of mercury: 95 % of kidney samples had concentrations below 1 μg/g and 82 % of liver samples had concentrations below 1 μg/g. Small geographical variations in Hg levels were observed in mink from the four studied feral populations. Significant differences in Cu concentrations between ranch and feral mink were also detected, with low variation within the two groups. Less pronounced differences were recorded for other chemical elements. These data suggest that Hg and Cu may be used as chemical markers for the identification of first generation mink farm escapees.

Highlights

Wild-living American mink (Neovison vison) are considered to be good indicators of environmental contamination (Basu et al 2007), some authors have questioned whether mink is a reliable sentinel species (Bowman and Schulte-Hostedde 2009)
In Poland, all feral mink populations are comprised of the distant descendents of ranch animals, but the inflow of first generation farm escapees may still be significant in some cases (Zalewski et al 2010, 2011)
Levels of Cu were about 5-fold higher in liver compared to kidney in ranch mink, and about 1.5-fold higher in feral mink

Summary

Introduction

Wild-living American mink (Neovison vison) are considered to be good indicators of environmental contamination (Basu et al 2007), some authors have questioned whether mink is a reliable sentinel species (Bowman and Schulte-Hostedde 2009). Several arguments have been made against this notion, including the fact that many wildliving mink fail to meet the criterion of continuous residence, since they are escapees from farms. Bowman and Schulte-Hostedde (2009) rightly argued that to be a sentinel species, the source of the examined pollutant must be the environment in which the mink lives. In Poland, all feral mink populations are comprised of the distant descendents of ranch animals, but the inflow of first generation farm escapees may still be significant in some cases (Zalewski et al 2010, 2011). They escape; the probability of admixture of ranch mink with the wild-living population increases in areas with a high density of mink farms. Bowman et al (2012) recently demonstrated that in Canada contamination levels differ between free-ranging domestic mink and wild (native) mink, and concluded that due to this fact, ranch

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion