Saturday, January 23, 2010

Extensive mink sliding

Janet writes: Wendy, Teresa, and I (and Ken for a bit --
congratulations on a rapid recovery, Ken!), went down to the north-south
flowing (and nameless, as far as I know) stream in the Berlin portion of
Mt Pisgah yesterday. Conditions were not very good, due to quantities
of snow ploppage and a slight crustiness, but the weather was
spectacular, and the snow not yet disturbed by human feet. We found a
trail of small mustelid tracks (track width only about an inch), which
would be pretty small for a mink. However, the consistent stride length
was more suggestive of mink. And then we discovered the extensive
sliding, as seen in the photos, which is also more consistent with
mink. Must have been a small female. (But do we really know that
weasels don't slide? Why wouldn't they?)

No comments:

Post a Comment