Body Size And Interactions Between European And American Mink Mustela Lutreola And M Vison In Eastern Europe PDF Download

The target species of this thesis, the European mink (Mustela lutreola) and the American mink (Neovison vison), are considered respectively as one of the most threatened carnivores and as one of the worst invaders in Europe. Both species colonized the Iberian Peninsula very recently: the European mink entered from France in the 1950s and colonized the rivers basins of the Northeastern Spain, and the American mink was introduced in the 1950s through fur farming and is currently found in six different populations throughout the Northern half of the Peninsula. In the Iberian Peninsula, most analyses focused on conservation and management of the European and the American mink in the last two decades are at local-scale, using data collected over small areas inside their range of distribution. In this thesis, we explored the two mink species interaction, occupancy, abundance and potential distribution over their entire range of distribution in the Iberian Peninsula, in order to provide sound basis to guide conservation and management actions. We used data from live-trapping surveys conducted between 2000 and 2011 as part of the European mink conservation plan and the American mink control plan. Moreover, we collected presence data of the historical distribution of the European mink all over Europe and presence data of the American mink in the native (North America) and the invaded (Europe) ranges. We applied three different statistical techniques to analyze the data: Occupancy Models, N-mixture Models and Species Distribution Models. We provided evidences of a large-scale competitive exclusion of the native species by the invasive mink, and we found a negative trend in the abundance of the critically endangered mink over the last fifteen years. We produced a spatial prediction of the potential expansion of the American mink in the Iberian Peninsula, demonstrating that the species could colonize river basins of the entire Peninsula. Finally, we analyzed the overlap of the two mink species' potential distribution in the Iberian Peninsula, in order to identify priority conservation areas for the European mink. Overall, from our analysis emerged that a better coordination between local policies as well as a greater constancy in monitoring and controlling the American mink population is imperative to improve the conservation strategy of the European mink in Spain.