January 24, 2020 4.06 pm This story is over 50 months old

Mink filmed parading pigeon catch in Lincoln River Witham

A rare sight!

A Lincoln boater managed to film a rare sight when they caught a mink swimming in the River Witham with a pigeon in its mouth in Lincoln on Friday.

Shannon Reilly, who regularly visits the Brayford marina in her boat, told The Lincolnite the mink “didn’t seem to have a care in the world that people were watching him”.

She said: “The pigeon was alive and at first I thought it was an otter as I often see them in the pool, but I noticed he was more fluffy than the other otter when he got a bit closer.”

The mink was casually swimming around with a pigeon in its mouth. Photo: Shannon Reilly

According to The Wildlife Trusts, the American mink is an active predator, feeding on anything it is big enough to catch.

This includes ground-nesting seabirds or native water voles. Minks are also good swimmers and can be fiercely territorial.

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust says the mink is not native to Britain, the animal’s introduction to local wildlife originated when mink were brought over for fur-farming.

The trust also said there is a widespread modern misconception that the UK’s wild population of American mink originated from mass releases of mink from fur farms by animal rights activists in the 1990s.