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Other usesUse dmy dates|date=June 2011Taxobox| name = Mink| image = Mink - Lower Saranac Lake.jpg| image_caption = American Mink ( Neovison vison )| regnum = Animal ia| phylum = Chordata | classis = Mammal ia| ordo = Carnivora | superfamilia = Musteloidea | familia = Mustelidae | subfamilia = Mustelinae | genus = Neovison and Mustela | subdivision_ranks = Species| subdivision = American Mink|Neovison vison Extinction|† Sea Mink|Neovison macrodon
European Mink|Mustela lutreola
There are two living species referred to as " mink ": the European Mink and the American Mink . The extinct Sea Mink is related to the American Mink, but was much larger. All three species are dark-colored, semi- aquatic animal|aquatic , carnivorous mammal s of the family Mustelidae , which also includes the weasel s and the otter s and ferret s. The American Mink is larger and more adaptable than the European Mink. It is sometimes possible to distinguish between the European and American mink; a European Mink always has a large white patch on its upper lip, while the American species sometimes does not. Thus, any mink without such a patch can be identified with certainty as an American Mink, but an individual with a patch cannot be certainly identified without looking at the skeleton. Taxonomically, both American and European Minks used to be placed in the same genus Mustela (" Weasel s"), but most recently the American Mink has been re-classified as belonging to its own genus Neovison . http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt Integrated Taxonomic Information System: mink. Accessed 10 August 2009
The Mink fur|American Mink's fur has been highly prized for its use in clothing , with hunting giving way to fur farming|farming . Its treatment has also been a focus of animal rights and animal welfare http://www.allbusiness.com/government/elections-politics-lobbying/9141777-1.html Dutch minister reverses battery and mink ban activism . American Mink have found their way into the wild in Europe (including Ireland and Great Britain ) and South America , after being released from mink farms by animal rights activists or otherwise escaping from captivity.cite news| url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/148120.stm | work=BBC News | title=Animal rights group claims responsibility for mink release | date=1998-08-09
American Mink are believed by some to have contributed to the decline of the less hardy European Mink through competition (though not through hybridization—native European mink are in fact closer to European_polecat|polecat s than to their North American cousins).Lodé T., Guiral G. & Peltier D. (2005) European mink-polecat hybridisation events: hazards from natural process ? Journal of Heredity 96 (2): 1-8 Trapping is used to control or eliminate feral American Mink populations.Haworth, Jenny (3 February 2009) "National cull may exterminate UK mink". Edinburgh. The Scotsman.
Mink oil is used in some medical products and cosmetics, as well as to treat, preserve and waterproof leather.
