After a 20-year absence, water voles are returning to rivers and streams in the West of England.
The species was once commonly seen across Britain, however non-native American mink have devastated the small mammal’s population.
Often described as ‘nature’s engineers’, water voles move nutrients around when they dig into the ground of river banks, bringing some to the surface.
The knock on effect sees increasing soil nutrients for plants to grow, while their eating habits can help to shape the ecosystem they live in.
A new initiative by the West of England Nature Partnership (WENP) in collaboration with Bristol Zoological Society, is helping to bring the water voles back to the Severn Shoreline Levels and Moors including Lawrence Weston moor.
Their return is part of the region’s broader Severn Shoreline restoration programme, which is focused on reviving critical intertidal habitats, wetlands, and peatlands.
The programme aims to restore the landscape for wildlife, people and climate resilience by enhancing watercourses, ditches, rhynes, and wet woodlands and follows the reintroduction of water voles to Exmoor and the Somerset Levels.
Many associate water voles famously with the character of ‘Ratty’ in the Wind in the Willows, who was a water vole himself.
Early observations of the reintroduction effort show a promising start, with evidence that even juvenile water voles are breeding, signalling a strong adaptation to their new environment.
Conservationists have been monitoring the water voles using floating rafts baited with apples, which they are naturally drawn to.