Water voles making a comeback - cautiously

[vole-woman]

Ratty is making a comeback - Telegraph

I wonder what current numbers are?

If only council planning departments - well, Shropshire council anyway - were on board with protecting this species!

[STYRBJORN]

I can't speak as to numbers, but in my home town in the Midlands I know where there are two breeding pairs of water voles. I have not the slightest intention of revealing where they are because there are some unpleasant children (read feral yobs) who would be straight round with their catapults and airguns. It saddens me that I know several sites of rare critters which I dare not reveal for fear lest my own species destroy them.

"And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

Genesis 1:26.

God has a lot to answer for.

STYRBJORN

[vole-woman]

Make sure the council knows where they are, though, and get them recorded on iSpot or whatever system your local Wildlife Trust uses for keeping mammal records.

I can understand your worry about yobs, but at the same time voles can be killed by accident/ignorance, eg through councils or water boards or the EA doing dredging work or bank maintenance, or by allowing developers to build on top of them. Voles have also been poisoned by people thinking they're rats.

It's a tricky balance, but here in Whitchurch, Shropshire, we've tried to publicise the general presence of water voles to try and get locals involved with a sense of ownership. That way we get reports of sightings and can raise the alarm if there's a threat.

[STYRBJORN]

Problem then is that the sites are both on the cut. (Sorry-canal!) The water is heavily infected with Weill's; about 7-8 years ago a young lad who had been swimming came close to death, spending 8 weeks on life support. So if I tell the council, they send the pest control team round to check . . . Would you trust a pesty to tell the difference between a rat and a vole? Or would he just say get rid they might be dangerous? Indeed, would you blame him? A few rodents or a child's life?

I prefer to keep schtum and leave them alone.

STYRBJORN

[vole-woman]

It's really important to have a pest controller on your side, imo. I use a great guy from the council who knows all about water voles and can remove the rats - which in our town center colony are a real problem - without harming the voles. (I know from experience that if I don't get him in quick enough the rats drive the voles out of this particular spot.)

Pest controllers are exactly the kind of people we should be informing about water voles - and my guess is that lots of, if not most professional pest controllers know the difference, and the legal status of water voles. In our case, our water vole protection and monitoring group came about specifically because a pest controller was called out to deal with the "rats" that a cat had caught, and recognised the animal as a vole and reported it.

My take is, don't draw the yobs' attention to water voles, but do tell the professional parties. Ad definitely get them recorded by the WT (who you can tell of your concerns) so the voles get their full protection.

[STYRBJORN]

Thanks VW! I will be back home this summer and check the sites are still OK. All being well I will contact WT.
I have also been worried because some people I have contacted (no names no pack drill) were all for sending camera teams, "experts", ya-de-dah to check the sites. Both sites are on the canal through a busy town and the last thing needed is to draw attention to them.
I'll update you as and when.

STYRBJORN

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

Also the links below for the same story

BBC News - Water voles make a comeback in UK

Environment Agency - New maps reveal Ratty?s return

BWD