The mink belongs to the Family Mustelidae, which includes weasels, ferrets and skunks. It inhabits wet places, is 18 to 28 inches long, and has dark brown to black fur which is very shiny and sleek. Mink are excellent swimmers and often do their hunting in water. Their preferred food is muskrat, but they also eat smaller mammals, frogs, snakes, young snapping turtles and water birds. The prey is killed by a bite to the neck.

The mink marks its territory with a malodorous secretion from the anal gland which smells as bad as the skunk's secretion, but does not carry as far. The mink will hiss, snarl or screech when alarmed, and apparently makes a purring sound when content.

A black mink has been seen several times running across the frozen water of the wetlands, once from a muskrat lodge.