BC SPCA seeks donations to help care for orphaned mink found on Vancouver Island

The SPCA says the baby mink was fond "crying, alone and distressed" with no family members or a den nearby: (BC SPCA)

Victoria -

The BC SPCA's Wild ARC facility in Metchosin, B.C. is seeking donations to help care for a baby mink that was found alone on Vancouver Island.

The rescue centre recently received the mink after it was found "crying, alone and distressed," the centre said Monday.

The SPCA says volunteers searched for the infant's family at the time, but were unable to find any other minks in the area.

"Our rehabilitation team stabilized the baby mink and tried to locate the den she came from – a wild animal’s best chance of survival is always with their mother," said Wild ARC assistant manager Tara Thom in a statement.

"Unfortunately, the original den was not found and another den with similar-aged babies wasn’t located either," she said. "Without these essential factors to try and reintroduce or foster the baby mink with another family, it meant she was truly orphaned and a long-term rehabilitation plan had to be made to raise her at Wild ARC."

Thom says that caring for young wild animals can be difficult, because the infants can imprint on humans if they are raised by people from a young age.

For best survival outcomes, particularly for minks, infants should be raised with other members of their species, according to Wild ARC. Fortunately, the SPCA says that another rescue centre on Vancouver Island, the MARS Wildlife Rescue Hospital in Merville, also recently took on another single orphaned baby mink.

The two organizations have decided to care for the minks together, with the SPCA looking after both of the animals. The minks have since been introduced and appear to be getting along, according to Wild ARC.

"They both still have some growing to do but we’re hopeful they will be ready for a second chance at life in the wild in a little over a month," said Thom.

For further details about the minks, or to make donations, visit the SPCA's website here.