An endangered British wetland creature is showing promising signs of recovery as rewilding efforts take hold.
The Miami Herald reported that a project led by the South Rivers Trust aims to reintroduce water voles to their native river systems. The ambitious venture released 150 voles in targeted sites in Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire, areas where they vanished some two decades ago.
The Trust described their return to the Hogsmill, a tributary of the Thames, as “not only a symbol of hope, but a practical step in restoring river ecosystems and enhancing local biodiversity.”
The water vole, familiar to many as the character Ratty in the popular children’s book The Wind in the Willows, was once plentiful across the United Kingdom. Around a century ago, there were up to eight million water voles across British wetlands, but they have since suffered a massive 94% population decline. They are the fastest declining mammal in Britain and are locally extinct in several areas where they once thrived.
Water voles have a key role to play in the wetland ecosystem. These keen little swimmers act as ecosystem engineers, supporting other wildlife. The Wildlife Trust likens them to tiny beavers in that their extensive burrowing helps aerate the soil and spreads nutrients and seeds.
Habitat destruction is part of the problem, but one of the biggest threats to the vole’s survival is the invasive North American mink. As the Wildlife Trust notes, these pesky predators entered British waterways as escapees from fur farms in the 1960s. They are aggressive hunters, and females are adept at squeezing into burrows, rendering the vole’s natural defense against predators useless.
Eradicating this invasive hunter is the only way to ensure the water voles’ recovery will succeed. As a National Geographic article notes, there has been some promising progress on that front, but removing minks is a lengthy and expensive process.
Reintroducing a species to its former habitat is a challenging endeavor but one that tends to have positive knock-on effects for the ecosystem. It’s worth the effort to take effective local action to boost an area’s biodiversity.
The Trust’s social media post attracted several supportive comments and some nostalgia.
“How wonderful!! I’m glad to see some good news! I hope they make it.” said one.
Another pointed out the mink issue, writing, “Let’s hope that there are no Mink around.”
The recovery invoked memories for another commenter: “I wish them well. We often used to see them on the River Wey when I was a child.”
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