Blue Mink

Actually, the taxonomy does not recognize such a species as “the Blue Mink”. Usually, Mink have dark brown coat with some white under the chin and the lower lip. However, there are so called Silverblu Mink with grayish coat, which is due to a recessive gene combination. This coat color is common to American Mink that were shipped to Europe in the late 1920s. These Mink are rarely found in the wild.

The American Mink (Mustela vision) can be found almost everywhere in North America. These animals lead a semi-aquatic life, as they are very adept at hunting in water. They take fish, amphibians, waterfowl, rodents and small ground mammals. American Mink have a fine and lustrous dark brown upper coat and a profuse undercoat that protects the body against low temperatures. These animals can swim in frigid water under a thick layer of ice. So called Blue Mink (let’s refer to them this way) have a grayish-blue pelage, which has been received through selective breeding.

These animals belong to the Mustelidae family, which comprises otters, badgers, weasels and marten. Along with the American Mink, there is the European Mink (Mustela lutreola), which is a little smaller in size. In the pictures, American and European Mink look very similar, although European Mink often have white on the upper lip. American Mink are more adaptive than European Mink, and they are known to have supplanted European Mink populations in areas close to Mink farms from where they escaped. Blue Mink are not likely to succeed in the wild, because the grey coat is a poor camouflage.

The coat of the American Mink is more valuable than that of the European Mink. According to the coat type, the American Mink is divided into the northern and the southern species. The northern Mink has a fine and gleaming upper coat with a thick undercoat. The southern Mink has a harsher upper coat, and there seems to be less difference between the upper- and the undercoat. Recently, animal rights enthusiasts have protested actively against raising Mink only to be slaughtered for pelts or Mink oil, and released many farm-raised Mink, including the so called Blue Mink, which might have contributed to Silverblu Mink occurrence in the wild.