Page 7 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #05

The estimated population of water voles in
Britain during the late Iron Age, when the CHRI SS
6.7bn abundant small mammals in these islands. PACK
chubby rodents may have been the most
KHAM’S
T-SEE
MUST

Q BEHAVIOUR
DOWN BY THE
WATERLINE

pril can be wonderful for
watching water voles. Their
Abreeding season is in full swing,
with the first youngsters leaving
burrows by the end of the month and
before long thinking about breeding
themselves. At this time their bankside
world has yet to be hidden by luxuriant
herbage, such as sedges, tall grasses,
yellow iris, meadowsweet and purple
loosestrife. Be very patient, pick a good
spot – look for fresh burrows, oval
droppings and piles of neatly snipped
vegetation – and cross your fingers.
It has to be said, it’s becoming much
harder to find Ratty. A new Wildlife
Trusts report shows that water voles’
range in England and Wales shrank by
30 per cent in 2006–15, even with the
boost from reintroduction projects
such as Cornwall’s Bude River and
Northumberland’s Kielder Water and
Forest Park. This is on top of an earlier
crash in the 1990s, when Britain lost a
staggering 6.4 million voles, largely to
predation by American mink.
Work’s afoot to help Ratty recover,
and as part of that the National Water
Vole Monitoring Programme (NWVMP)
is calling for volunteers to survey 500m
stretches of bank at 900 pre-selected
sites between April and June.

GET INVOLVED To find out how to help
survey water voles for the NWVMP, go to:
www.ptes.org/get-involved/surveys

EVEN WITH THE
` SUCCESS OF
REINTRODUCTIONS,
RATTY IS STILL OUR
FASTEST DECLINING
LAND MAMMAL.

BBC Wildlife 7