Conservation & Ecology
Nose to tail
Unfortunately, water voles are often mistaken for rats; those much less welcome residents on our waterways! Therefore, it is very important to be able to distinguish the water vole from the similar-sized brown rat. It is often informally called the ‘water rat’, although it only bears a superficial resemblance. Water voles have rounder noses than rats, deep brown fur, chubby faces and short fuzzy ears; unlike rats their tails, paws and ears are covered with hair. Water voles are active during the day and, if abundant, are relatively easy to spot with their characteristic hunchback feeding posture. It is also worth just listening out for the ‘plop’ as they splash dive into the water. Like many small rodents, water voles only live about five months in the wild, but have
the capacity to breed like proverbial wildfire; a female may be directly responsible for over one hundred offspring in one breeding season!
Why save the water vole?
Water voles are a good indicator of the health of any water you have at your facility. If they are present, then all is generally well (excuse the pun). They have relatively simple requirements -
water, banks for burrowing in and ample vegetation for food and cover. Consequently, water voles will inhabit most open water and wetland habitats; rivers, streams, canals, burns, wet ditches, lakes, ponds, marshes, reedbeds and so forth. However, they do require sites to have certain characteristics if a population is to thrive.
Slow-flowing or still waters, with little or no significant fluctuations in water levels, are preferred. They also like deepish water of around one metre. They dislikes fast flowing water, spates of
prolonged floods, very shallow water (less than 25cm), watercourses prone to drying-up in summer and excessive pollution. Despite being strong swimmers, water
voles bolt to their burrows for safety when disturbed or threatened by predators. They like to create their burrows in steep earth riverbanks and dig out their nesting chambers above the water level. Bare, exposed or canalised watercourses tend to be avoided. Water voles prefer banks with tall herbaceous vegetation that provides both food and cover from predators, with plentiful
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