Identifying animal prints you may find on your clay pad:
Operating a survey raft
¨ The survey raft is designed to float on a water courses.
¨ All animals need to rehydrate on a daily basis taking on water.
¨ Animals will visit rivers, burns and streams to do this.
¨ Once an animal notices the survey raft hopefully they shall be inquisative enough to explore it.
¨ Generally mink and other semi aquatic mammals are attracted by holes or tunnels.
¨ Once aboard the raft the idea is that they will walk through the tunnel housing.
¨ Inside the tunnel housing a clay pad is located within a plastic basket and on oasis foam.
¨ Oasis foam helps to prevent the clay from drying as it remains moist by retaining water once wet.
¨ As animals travel over the clay their pad prints are left for you to discover.
¨ It is reccommended that you check your survey raft weekly or fortnightly.
¨ Remember you are not just attempting to locate American mink but also a host of semi aquatic mammals such as otters, stoats and more importantly watervoles.
¨ Record your findings within this booklet as this will enable us to build a picture of the wildlife near your survey raft.
¨ If you notice American mink prints you must contact the project officer and begin your trapping program.
¨ Traps are places within the tunnel thereafter until the mink has been captured.
¨ Please see the diagram below for the design of a typical monitoring and survey raft design.
