European mink

The European mink, also known as the Russian mink or Eurasian mink, is a semiaquatic species of mustelid native to Europe. It resembles the American mink in colour but is slightly smaller with a less specialized skull, and despite the similarity in name and build the two are not closely related, the European mink being closer to the European polecat and the Siberian weasel. It lives primarily along forest streams unlikely to freeze in winter and feeds mainly on voles, frogs, fish, crustaceans, and insects. The IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered, its numbers having declined more than fifty percent over the past three generations and projected to decline by over eighty percent over the next three, a decline that began in the nineteenth century and has been attributed to a combination of factors including habitat loss and competition with the introduced American mink.