{"id":827871,"date":"2026-08-27T19:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T19:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/827871\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T19:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T19:18:12","slug":"an-otter-a-beaver-and-now-a-mink-spotted-in-the-bronx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/827871\/","title":{"rendered":"An otter, a beaver \u2014 and now a mink spotted in the Bronx"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week after announcing his camera trap had captured the first otter<\/a> in the Bronx River in a century, a local wildlife researcher was surprised to see a new face in his lens: an American mink.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt \u200awas exciting because it was the first time that I’ve seen them on my camera traps,\u201d said RJ Hawkins, whose research is overseen by the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society. \u201c\u200aIt’s an interesting discovery because like the North American river otter, they’re also indicators for a healthy freshwater ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mink have been spotted in wooded areas of the Bronx before. But the new image is the first official sighting of the feisty predator on this part of the formerly polluted river. The mink joins the otter and a beaver, which all appear to live in the area near the Bronx Zoo. Local nature lovers say the sightings are a testament to nature\u2019s resilience \u2014 and the effectiveness of decades of restoration efforts.<\/p>\n

Researcher R.J. Hawkins maintains the camera traps along the Bronx River.<\/p>\n

Walter Wuthmann\/Gothamist<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery species captured by our cameras tells us something about how wildlife is responding to a Bronx River that has become cleaner and healthier after decades of restoration,\u201d said Craig Piper, interim executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Society and director of the Bronx Zoo. \u201cThis mink is a reminder that positive progress is the result of the sustained efforts of dedicated organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the 19th century New York\u2019s otters, beavers, and mink had been hunted to near-extinction<\/a>. While their numbers are recovering upstate, they\u2019re still a rare sight in the waters around New York City.<\/p>\n

Factories<\/a> and mills once lined the Bronx River, pumping out products like barrels, bleach and iron. Eventually those factories gave way to the Bronx River Parkway \u2013 and the polluted river became a dumping ground.<\/p>\n

Cardi Beaver the beaver captured at night by a camera trap in May.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society<\/p>\n

Growing up in the Bronx in the 1980s, \u201c\u200ayou would see cars in the river, tons of tires in the river,\u201d said Javier Lopez, the Bronx River Alliance’s interim executive director.<\/p>\n

Community groups have organized local clean-ups of the river since at least the 1970s, according to Lopez. \u201cBronx residents refused to let this river be treated like a dumping ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

An otter, beaver and mink are thought to live around this scenic section of the Bronx River.<\/p>\n

Walter Wuthmann\/Gothamist<\/p>\n

The Bronx River Alliance and Wildlife Conservation Society scored a major victory in 2011 when they secured over $30 million<\/a> in federal restoration funds with the help of former U.S. Rep. Jos\u00e9 Serrano.<\/p>\n

They used the money to pull out the junked cars, re-plant the riverbanks, protect more habitat and reintroduce native fish species like alewife, a small, silvery river herring.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWhat we were able to do and what the community was able to do is to give a little bit of respite to nature,\u201d said \u200aJohn Calvelli, the Wildlife Conservation Society\u2019s Executive Vice President for Public Affairs. \u201cAnd guess what? Nature is incredibly resilient. If we give it some time, it will come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first furry mammal to return to the Bronx River was a beaver in 2007, which advocates named Jos\u00e9<\/a>, after Serrano. He was joined a few years later by another beaver named Justin Beaver<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pair disappeared around 2018, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, likely due to natural causes.<\/p>\n

The elusive otter was captured by a camera trap in June.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society Education Department\/RJ Hawkins<\/p>\n

Hawkins, the wildlife researcher, spotted a new beaver on his camera traps last summer, who he\u2019s calling Cardi Beaver. He captured the shot of the otter in June. And now there appears to be a mink \u2013 all three animals sharing the same stretch of river.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u200aarea is a little hotspot of biodiversity in an otherwise very urban landscape,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cSo it’s exciting to see just how many species can coexist with us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week after announcing his camera trap had captured the first otter in the Bronx River in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-827871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}