Somewhere along the upper Aragón River, between the jagged peaks of the Pyrenees and a hydropower dam, conservation biologist Madis Põdra and his colleagues will release 10 or 12 captive-born European minks (Mustela lutreola) next week into a mink’s idea of heaven: a pristine patch of Spanish wilderness with 150 kilometers of waterways. Põdra hopes they will start a new population and help save the European mink, a critically endangered species whose population in Spain is down to 500.
But in an ironic twist, protecting the furry, dark-brown carnivore requires killing its main competitor, the equally winsome American mink (Neovison vison). A similar reintroduction effort a decade ago flopped because it failed to root out the American mink population; this time the Spanish team is betting on an elaborate system of floating traps to capture them.