Mink Invasion
Channel: UFZ
Date: 2011-07-19

Mink Invasion - new exotic animals on Navarino
Originally from North America, the mink´s first appearance on the southern Chilean island of Navarino near Cape Horn in 2001 was completely unexepted. In the 1930s, the mink (Mustela vison) was brought to Argentina for its precious fur and kept in fur farms. Now the animals have swum `unchecked´ along the Beagle channel and have discovered a new home in Navarino´s bird paradise - to the detriment of the native animal species and the despair of Navarino´s farmers. The biological diversity of Chile´s newest UNESCO biosphere reserve is under threat and conservationists are alarmed.
The film documents the fieldwork of the biologist Elke Schüttler and illustrates the drama and the threat of invasive animal species at the `world´s southern tip´.
Screenplay: Peter-Hugo Scholz Camera: André Künzelmann