Missouri’s mink records gather where its two great rivers meet. St. Louis County leads with 18, and St. Charles and Franklin counties add 12 each, a stretch of Missouri and Mississippi river bottoms, sloughs, and creek mouths around the metro. Columbia Bottom Conservation Area, at the confluence itself, is one of the named sites with a record. Those clusters say as much about where Missourians live and paddle as about the animal.
The Ozarks form a second pocket. Mark Twain National Forest holds 8 records, the most of any named place in the state, and Ozark National Scenic Riverways adds 3, while Dent and Shannon counties follow spring-fed rivers through steep, wooded hills. Cold, clear Ozark streams carry crayfish through the year, a dependable meal for a mink. Farther north, Boone County, home to Columbia, logs 10, and Holt County in the far northwest adds 6 from the Missouri River’s floodplain marshes.
With only 136 records, all of them from iNaturalist, Missouri’s monthly pattern is thin. Reports peak in June and July, at 18 and 20, with a smaller bump in March, and fall to a handful in late fall and winter. Summer float trips and longer days put more people on rivers then, which likely shapes that curve as much as the animals do. It’s native to Missouri, and NatureServe ranks it S4, apparently secure.
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