Abstract
The American mink Neovison vison is a widespread alien carnivore in Europe due to escapes from fur farms through this continent. Impacts by naturalized mink include competition with native species and predation of crayfish and small vertebrates. Therefore, an updated monitoring of mink distribution is required to design management plans. The American mink has been reported with an established population in North-Eastern Italy, in Sardinia, and two small nuclei respectively in the Central and in the Northern Apennine ridge. Available information for the latter dates back to early 1990s. In this note, we described the range expansion of the American mink population in the Northern Apennine ridge and we estimate the current distribution range and the extent of occurrence by using data collected from 2006 to 2021 through the Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP). We compared the current distribution range with that of 1990s. The American mink showed a remarkable range increase since its first escape in the Northern Apennines, thus requiring rapid actions to limit impacts on native biodiversity.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank all the citizens who provided photos and records of free-ranging American minks. We also would like to thank Associazione Teriologica Italiana (ATIt) for the provision of information on mink distribution in our study area. Two anonymous referees and the Associate Editor G. Veron kindly improved the first draft of this MS with their comments.
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Author contributions: E.M., P.B. and G.M. planned and supervised the study. A.V. and A.B. collected occurrences and P.B. worked on coordinates to build the map. E.M. and G.M. wrote the first draft. All authors participated in writing all drafts.
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Research funding: This research was conducted with no fund.
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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Research ethics: All procedures performed in this study did not involve animal handling and were in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments.
References
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Supplementary Material
The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2021-0133).
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