SHOULD you be walking by a riverbank and hear a distinct plopping sound, chances are it’s one of these critters launching itself into the water.

It’s a good sound. Water voles haven’t exactly been the luckiest of species. For starters their numbers have plummeted to just a third of what they were 10 years ago.

They only have a lifespan of a few months, have no ears to speak of and – the indignity of it all – they are often mistaken for rats.

But recently their fortunes have turned, at least locally. In East Dorset there is a new and growing population thanks to the combined efforts of a dedicated team of folk who rather like them.

We’ve all heard about people pulling together in times of crisis, and a real Dunkirk spirit has pervaded a successful re-introduction programme at Moors Valley Country Park.

Rangers, local volunteers, landowners and national experts have rallied together to help Britain’s fastest declining mammal. And like many successful things, it has been many months in the making.

The idea to reintroduce the water vole back into East Dorset waters was first conceived back in 2009. Local people fondly remembered sightings of Kenneth Grahame’s iconic Wind in the Willows character in the Crane and Moors river system, and the Rangers were keen to bring ‘Ratty’ back. But conditions in their new pad had to be exactly right.

The baddie in this tale is the North American mink. Since those pesky furry Yanks first voyaged to these shores in the 1920s, they have found water voles a pleasing appetiser.

“For a successful reintroduction we needed not only to ensure the voles had a suitable immediate habitat but also to monitor a wide area inside and outside the Park to make sure we were not bringing the water vole to a river system where they would quickly be eaten by mink,” said senior countryside ranger, Matt Reeks.

Initiated and overseen by rangers from East Dorset Countryside Management Service, the first water vole release in the Park took place last summer following an extensive period of riverbank clearance and mink monitoring.

They thrived in their new neighbourhood, which led to a second release this summer, with 120 water voles joining new chums already established in the river systems. What a big vole party that must have been.

The project has involved a huge commitment in terms of time and effort not just from the Rangers but also the nine adjacent landowners who have worked together to provide suitable habitats and crucially, monitor the rivers for mink activity.

The team were helped by the UK’s leading water vole conservation specialist and breeder, Derek Gow, and also benefited from the advice and experience of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, the inventors of a simple but highly effective ‘mink raft’.

“Six thousand mink were released by animal activists from a local fur firm back in 1998 which had a huge impact on the local water vole population. We wanted to make sure our returning water voles would be safe,” said Matt.

“The mink rafts have been designed to attract curious mammals, and once ‘on board’ they walk over a clay pad which very neatly records their tracks.”

Eleven rafts were built and positioned throughout the local river system enabling the rangers to collect accurate evidence about the local mammal population. After a year of regular monitoring they knew the area was mink free, and the reintroduction could go ahead.

The mink rafts have also played an important role in confirming the survival of the first released population of water voles, regularly revealing their distinctive star-shaped four-toed front foot print.

Otter tracks were also spotted regularly and there is good evidence that they will catch and kill mink.

Otters might also consider a vole as a tasty snack, but as they are too portly to enter the water vole burrows the two species can coexist.

Human visitors are becoming as beady-eyed as the critters themselves and are now reporting their own sightings of voles by the riverbank.

There are some well-established colonies in some of the quieter areas of the park.

“The project clearly demonstrates that water vole populations can be reestablished where they have become extinct through a process of solid community effort,” said Derek Gow.

“The importance of the work at Moors Valley really cannot be overstated. It’s the first country park in the south to have taken this initiative, which is also the first reintroduction programme for Dorset.

“For the success of the water vole we need to instigate many more reintroduction projects just like this one.

“If that doesn’t happen, the species will continue to decline throughout much of what remains of its former range and the water voles’ oncefamiliar presence in the British countryside will become nothing more than a memory.”

  • For more information on the water vole programme contact the Rangers on 01425 470721 or visit moors-valley.co.uk

Water voles: a factfile

The character ‘Ratty’ in the story Wind in the Willows ate chicken
sandwiches and went fishing. But water voles do not really eat fish (or
chicken).They eat stems, leaves, roots, bulbs, flowers and bark of lots
of different waterside plants including grass. Around 227 plants have been identified as part of the water vole diet.

Water voles store food inside their burrows and are very fond of apples.
They can find wind-fall apples in gardens or crab apples growing wild
and float them across a river to their burrow

A water vole’s eyesight isn’t great but they do have very good hearing

Inside their ears is a special flap of skin which closes when the water
vole dives under the water.

Surprisingly, water voles are rather basic swimmers.

Females can have up to five litters a year between April and September
with up to six babies in each litter.

This might sound like a lot but water voles also have a lot of other predators such as owls, rats, stoats, herons, eagles, cats and even large fish.