Jonathan, I repeat,
I am not making a case for leaving mink alone but if you ever want to have a look around a mink habitat up here in Bury then I would be more than happy to show you around. The point being that we do not seem to have any depressed breeding successes as a result of having mink present and I know there is at least one pair because I photographed the dog two years ago. I also saw two similar sized individuals (either youngsters or females) close together earlier this year. I have seen individual incidents involving mink such as taking of coot young and alleged injuries to a well grown swan family that were reported (but not confirmed) to be caused by mink. Nevertheless, coots and moorhens continue to breed at the locality although a swan family was unsuccessful for natural reasons (the pen was inexperienced and failed to feed the cygnets) without suffering any attacks. The usual way that birds respond to high predation rates is by producing more young but I have not seen any evidence of this or of high mortality rates amongst coot families except when they chose to kill their own young. Comparing this with other species such as blue tits, the adaptation could begin within a few years.
Please note: whilst it may be possible for birds to adapt, I am pretty sure it would be tough (if not impossible) for smaller mammals to do so. We undoubtedly still have mouse and vole populations along with frogs and toads but our water and bank vole populations are long gone. As I mentioned, I am not sure if there is a cause and effect relationship in this case.
I am not sure when the last farm closed but the ban was voted in in 2000 (2002 in Scotland although the last fur farm closed as early as 1983).
It is not a theory, it is an observation. Jonathan with respect, why should I repeat points I already made? I pointed you to articles in BBC Wildlife and you have the same search capabilities on your Internet access as I do. I have another life that involves going out looking at wildlife not just talking about it and I really do not have the time to go chasing up information for someone who is capable of doing that for themselves. I come on here as an interested amateur these days and not as a professional Wildlife Adviser with access to the second largest nature library in the UK. I am sorry if you see that as an evasive answer but I have no wish to get into a prolonged debate about something we probably agree on anyway - this is not a pissing contest.