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ATTLEBORO - A rarely seen mink found its way into a local company and was turned over to city animal control officers this week.

The carnivorous and wetland dwelling member of the weasel family was found in Engineered Materials Solutions Inc. in the Attleboro Corporate Campus and was at first thought to be a ferret.

A person who rescues ferrets however identified it as a mink and it was transferred by a mink rehabilitator through the Animal Rescue League said Animal Control Officer Jeffery Keefer.

"It was the first one I've ever seen," Keefer said of the diminutive animal which had a body measuring just nine inches. "It was actually pretty neat."

Animal Control Officer Karen Harvey, who cared for the animal, said it was lethargic at first, but after it got a few meals of mice meat and fish it revived. While she tended the animal for a few days, it was always out of view.

The mink hid in a shoe box that had a hole cut into it, Harvey said. "I didn't see it the whole time, she said.

Lori Cookman, a wildlife biologist for the Massachusetts Wildlife Department, said mink are common anywhere in the southeastern part of the state where there is water. However, the animals are usually most active at dawn and dusk in the wetlands where their dark colored fur conceals them, making it unlikely that humans will see them very often.

Mink, which are good swimmers, eat only meat and can attack and kill animals as big as a muskrat, Cookman said.

A full grown mink is around 25 inches long including the tail and weighs from two to five pounds. The mink found at EMS was likely a juvenile, Cookman said.

It could have come from Cooper's Pond, which is located on the campus.

GEORGE W. RHODES can be reached at 508-236-0432 or at grhodes@thesunchronicle.com.