Conservation organisations in Romania and across Europe are assessing whether the critically endangered European mink could eventually be returned to parts of the southern Carpathian Mountains, where the species has disappeared from much of its former range. The work is currently at the feasibility and planning stage, with researchers assessing habitat suitability, landscape connectivity, potential threats and the condition of Romania's remaining European mink population in the Danube Delta. The Vincent Wildlife Trust is working with the Romanian Wilderness Society, Fauna & Flora, and the Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development to determine whether conservation translocations could be a viable means of restoring European mink populations in the Carpathians. No mink have been released as part of this project. Instead, researchers are gathering the information needed to establish whether a future translocation could be carried out without putting the Danube Delta population at risk. The initiative forms part of wider efforts to conserve the species and the freshwater habitats on which it depends.
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