26^th Mustelid Colloquium  (28-31 August 2008)

IOSF has just returned from the 26^th Mustelid conference in Budapest, Hungary, where we gave a paper on the use of camera traps to monitor otters here on the Isle of Skye.  This is a project we have been undertaking over the last 18 months.

Paul presenting his paper

The Mustelidae is a diverse family and the largest in the order Carnivora – it includes otters, badgers, weasels and stoats.  If you think of the United Kingdom we have eight carnivores and six of those are from the mustelid family, and the North American continent has 38 carnivores out of which 11 are mustelids.

The conference was diverse, covering topics from monitoring small carnivores in France, the use of genetics to monitor pine martens in Ireland and papers on badgers and the restoration of the European mink in France. More information can be found including power points of all the talks at at http://mustelid2008.elte.hu.

Some of the conference group on a walk 

After the conference we went with Dr Jozsef Lanszki of the Kaposvar University to look at his otter work on the river Drava.  The Eurasian otter was given full protection in Hungary in 1974 and this beautiful area is not only a haven for otters but for numerous species of bird and also the golden jackal.

The Drava River                                                                                                      the golden jackal