Water voles have suffered the fastest decline of any UK mammal, driven by American mink predation — mink control programmes are direct welfare interventions that have reversed local declines.
Mink predation causes acute fear, injury, and death for water voles. Being pursued into a burrow and killed represents a severe welfare event. Family group annihilation removes all social bonds. The chronic presence of mink causes persistent anxiety in surviving voles, affecting foraging and reproduction. Mink control — trapping and culling — is a welfare intervention for water voles, though raises welfare considerations for mink.