ZooMontana staff said goodbye to long-time resident Ivy, the 10- year-old mink.
Staff witnessed a rapid decline in Ivy’s health due to age-related complications and humanely euthanized her Wednesday. Ivy was an American mink, native to Montana, and a member of the weasel family.
She came to ZooMontana in 2015 after being born that year on a private fur farm.
Ivy faced several health complications including a cancer diagnosis in 2019 that led to the partial amputation of her tail.
ZooMontana assistant curator Allyson Welborn says Ivy contributed to science and conservation.
“She sure did and it’s in the most unusual way. It’s through her poop and there is plenty of it. Miss Ivy, she did eat quite a bit so she always had plenty of poop for us to bag up and send out to local and national conservation groups,” commented Welborn. “One I want to give a shout out to is Working Dogs for Conservation. They’re based out of Missoula, Montana, and they do incredible work doing scent detection utilizing the extremely powerful noses of dogs. So sending these poop samples actually helps train the dogs to what a real, live mink smells like.”
Ivy liked swimming in her pool and playing in buckets of snow brought into her enclosure by caretakers.
This year ZooMontana is honoring Ivy and other animals who have passed on, like Simpson the gray wolf and Bruno the grizzly bear.
Staff has set up an ofrenda or offering place in observance of Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead inside the Education Center. Visitors are encouraged to stop by and leave a message.
