Meet the American mink, a small mammal, common to Connecticut, that’s no stranger to water.

Equipped with partially webbed feet, mink can dive, torpedo-like, 16 feet deep or more into ponds, streams and rivers, and swim up to 114 feet underwater, hunting crayfish, frogs and slow-swimming fish, like suckers, catfish, perch and shiners, according to Mark Elbrock and Kurth Rhinehardt, authors of “Behavior of North American Mammals.”

“People don’t realize how aquatic minks are,” Paul Rego, wildlife biologist for CT DEEP, said. “They are very capable swimmers.”

On shore, minks are agile, too, climbing trees and following stream beds 7 to 8 miles in a night, foraging for prey often bigger than they are, like rabbits and muskrats.

These energetic animals are two feet long, weigh less than three pounds, and are endowed with fur that is one of the most prized in the world. Mink fur is short, dense, luxuriously soft and waterproof.

Rego said minks are part of the mustelid family, a group of active mammals that include wolverines, badgers, fishers, martens, ferrets, weasels and skunks. And like skunks, minks have well-developed anal scent glands that emit a powerful, unpleasant odor, allowing them to mark territories and advertise their presence to other minks.

“They can be kind of smelly,” Rego said.

Minks are native to most of North America but are rarely seen by humans. Why?

“People who canoe or kayak see them sometimes, but most of us don’t, because minks tend to stay in thick, marshy vegetation and are most active at night,” Rego said.

I count myself lucky. I’ve seen one mink in the wild, prowling a river bank in a city park in Wisconsin. My brother saw one in the Borough of Stonington, and one was recently spotted on the grounds of the Mystic Seaport Museum.

By nature, mink are solitary animals, pairing up only during mating season.

Male and female minks mate once a year, from January to April, then quickly go their separate ways. When the female is ready to have her babies, she will commandeer a vacant muskrat burrow or tree cavity, line it with fur, and give birth to 3-6 “kits.”

From all reports, the female is a vigilant mother, leaving the den only for brief moments to hunt and bring back food for her kits. Weaned after five to six weeks, the kits stay with their mother until fall, learning how to hunt, then strike out on their own.

According to native-languages.org, the mink’s hunting prowess was revered by some American Indian tribes, who carved likenesses of minks in their totems, believing the symbols would bring them good luck whenever they hunted.

Finally, this amazing animal seems to have a soft spot in its heart. Mink purr when they are happy. Enjoy.

If you know or have heard of any fun or unusual animal stories, please write me, and I will gladly share these stories or photos in future columns.

Bill Hobbs is a resident of Stonington and a lifelong wildlife enthusiast. For comments, he can be reached at whobbs246@gmail.com.