10 (38.54) American mink—male 3 7.05 (7.78) 27.67 (31.55) American mink—female 4 4.92 (3.79) 53.78 (15.41) N number of radio-tracked individuals (adapted from Garin et al. 2002b; Zabala et al. 2007b) Mapping barriers in rivers During the 2007–2011 period we inspected the rivers in Bizkaia in order to detect every barrier which could affect river connectivity. Fragmentation structures were Obeticholic price included in a Geographic Information System (GIS, Arcview 3.2.). We considered three types of barriers with regard to the hypothetical effect on the mink home ranges and their displacement along the river: (1) Slight barrier: Those artificial

Daporinad manufacturer structures (concrete walls, rubble walls, river dams, underpasses) which allow mink to move up and down the river but create zones where vegetation and resting or refuge sites are not available. Mink can pass these structures by walking or swimming, but each time they do so they risk their lives due to the high level of exposition towards predators

(feral cats, dogs, foxes, raptors, owls, and others). These types of structures can affect only a few meters of riverbank or can be spread over several kilometres and the risk is directly proportional to the length of the barrier.   (2) Moderate barrier: Those artificial structures which affect river connectivity, mainly between small streams and main rivers, i.e. drainage pipes; see more inadequate wildlife crossings below roads, highways and railways; and pipes below urbanized areas, which all require mink to enter them in order to move along the river. In these cases, mink could enter the pipes and crossings and utilise them to get past the barriers (although we found that radio-tracked mink never entered these types of structures).

Alternatively they could come out of the river and cross roads or other structures, although this strategy involves serious risk of being killed on the roads or by predators.   (3) Absolute barrier. Some artificial structures such as concrete river banks, drainage pipes and pipes below urbanized areas, which include vertical water jumps made of concrete. These allow mink to move downstream but it is impossible for them to jump back up. In the case of absolute barriers there are Sinomenine no possibilities of exiting the river due to the existence of other impediments.   Model definition We considered as dependent variable the capture/non capture of European and American mink in the 42 minimum viable areas during the 2007–2011 trapping period. Independent variables considered for analysis were: (1) the length of the main river (streams between 4 and 15 m in width), considering only those streams which are represented on the 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 scale maps (http://​www1.​euskadi.​net/​cartografia/​ see in Zabala et al.