White-tailed eagle known to prey on the critically endangered, native European mink ("Mustela lutreola") (perhaps due to its shier habits) which the American mink are known to have been outcompeting in some areas (but the European has mainly declined due to massive overhunting by humans as a furbearer). Kits of larger mammals such as Eurasian ("Castor fiber") and North American beavers ("Castor canadensis") (introduced) and of European badger ("Meles meles") have been found as prey. The most widely reported mammalian prey known (albeit usually as a supplemental prey species) in the non-native muskrat ("Ondatra zibethicus"), which averages about , and may be
Meles (genus) Primorskii. Genetic studies of mitochondrial DNA shows the separation of two variants on either side of the Volga but their exact taxonomic rank remains undefined. A further study of cheek teeth from individuals across the entire range supports this division and provides confirmation that "M. meles" and "M. anakuma" are indeed separate species. A further species is "Meles thorali" from the late Pleistocene, known only from fossil remains, specimens of which have been found at Saint-Vallier, Drôme, in southeastern France and Binagady, in Azerbaijan. These have large cheek teeth and characteristics intermediate between "M. meles" and "M. anakuma". It is