In The Wind In The Willows, the affable Ratty – who, despite his name, was a water vole – lived an idyllic life in his riverside home.
All he really had to worry about was Mr Toad’s preposterous antics.
But 115 years since Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s book was first published, water voles are in a far more precarious position – the once common species’ numbers are declining faster than those of any other mammal in the UK.
Loss of habitat and the escape of American mink, voracious predators which also feed on birds and fish, from fur farms in the 1950s and 1960s has seen the water vole population plummet from an estimated eight million to around 132,000.
Now, however, there are hopes that Ratty and his cute, chestnut-brown, furry tailed ilk could be on the rise again – thanks to reintroduction programmes involving conservationists working with landowners and water vole ‘surveyor volunteers’.
Water voles are good swimmers and the ‘plop’ of them diving into rivers used to be a much-loved sound in the UK countryside
One success story from such a project has been announced by the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, which released 150 captive bred water voles on a stretch of the River Ver near St Albans two years ago. The guinea pig-sized, vegetarian rodents had last been seen there in 1987.
The trust this week said the geographical range of land occupied by the animals has, since the release, approximately doubled year-on-year – suggesting that they are ‘thriving’.
There is no official figure for how many water voles there are now in the area. But some estimates based on scientific modelling techniques suggest it could be between 275 and 450.
Female water voles can have three to six litters in a year, with four or five pups in each litter. Water voles can live between six and 18 months. They are classed as endangered in the UK and their burrows are fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Josh Kalms, water vole officer at Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, said: ‘Water Voles are a key species in wetland ecosystems and their actions are important for maintaining healthy wetland ecosystems.
‘They are mini ecosystem engineers with their burrowing and feeding helping our river banks and wetlands stay in good condition.
‘They have been recorded to eat more than 220 different types of plants including sedges, rushes and reeds and in doing so clear patches within the vegetation allowing light to come in and other plants to grow, encouraging biodiversity.
‘Their old burrows are used by amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates to live in. And water voles are themselves part of the food chain, with the odd one taken by an owl, kestrel or fox.’
As in other areas of the country where conservationists have reintroduced water voles, the area was monitored for mink and traps were placed for them just in case.
Water voles are good swimmers and the ‘plop’ of them diving into rivers used to be a much-loved sound in the UK countryside. They dive in the water when disturbed and kick up mud as a smoke screen against predators, Mr Kalms said. But, unfortunately, mink are also adept swimmers – and can squeeze inside water voles’ burrows too.
115 years since Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s book The Wind In The Willows was first published, water voles are in a far more precarious position – and declining faster than those of any other mammal in the UK
The trust has been assisted by volunteers who were trained to look for signs of water vole occupation. The volunteers use poles to part vegetation as they search for latrines and feeding sites – water voles leave piles of nibbled grass and stems may be found by the water’s edge, showing a distinctive 45 degree, angled-cut at the ends – to help monitor the new areas colonised by the little animals.
Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust is aiming to have water voles back in every river in Hertfordshire by 2030.
They have previously reintroduced water voles at Thorley Wash nature reserve near Bishop’s Stortford in 2015 and on the River Beane last year. Similar projects are taking place elsewhere in the country.
Although the water vole is famously known as ‘Ratty’ in The Wind in the Willows, the Wildlife Trusts say that despite being sometimes referred to as a ‘water rat’, there is no such thing – there are brown rats, black rats and water voles.