Water Voles
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Threatened by habitat loss and predation by American mink, the water vole is the UK's fastest declining native mammal. In 1990 there were seven million water voles in the UK. By 1998 numbers had crashed to less than a million and they have since continued to fall. Previous legal protection for water voles, introduced in 1998, extended only to the animal's habitat, not to the animal itself. This has proved a source of confusion, resulting in the loss of important water vole colonies.
On the 6 April 2008 it became illegal to intentionally kill a water vole or to intentionally, or recklessly, damage or disturb the places they use for shelter or protection, meaning that their future is a safer one.
For the past decade, The Wildlife Trusts have been working hard to ensure water voles survive, by improving wetland habitats and working to protect water voles from mink predation.
Water vole facts
- 90% population crash since 1990
- Water voles eat 80% of their body weight daily
- They feed on over 200 different plant species
- 170 metres of river bank is the average territory for a male water vole
- Females can produce up to five litters per year, but three or four is average
- They’ve been recorded at altitudes of over 900m in upland areas of the UK
- There was a 12 year absence of water voles at the Swannery in Abbotsbury, Dorset – until 2007 when they were seen once again
- 284 water voles have been reintroduced to Warcop near Brough in Cumbria in 2007
- Water voles are believed to be extinct in Cornwall
- There are 47 local Wildlife Trusts across the whole of the UK, the Isle of Man and Alderney. With 726,000 members, it’s the largest UK voluntary organisation dedicated to conserving the full range of the UK’s habitats and species, whether they be in the countryside, in cities or at sea. They manage 2,200 nature reserves covering more than 80,000 hectares. For more information log on to www.wildlifetrusts.org
