Wonderful Water Voles!
- Jane Orton
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Water voles may be timid, but they shouldn’t be underestimated. The little rodents arrived in Britain following epic journeys across Europe thousands of years ago. Many people today don’t know exactly what a water vole is, and few people have ever seen one. Once common, they are now Britain’s fastest declining mammal. Dr. Orton investigates this underrated emblem of the English countryside.
Our native water vole (arvicola amphibious) lives next to rivers, streams, ditches, ponds and lakes, and in marshes, reedbeds and wet moorland in Britain. They are widespread throughout mainland UK, but now they are in trouble: in fact, the water vole is Britain’s fastest declining wild mammal.
Water voles are bigger than other voles, with chestnut-brown fur, a blunt, rounded nose, small ears, and a furry tail. Water vole fur can look almost black when it is wet, and Scottish water voles have much darker fur. Sometimes people confuse them with brown rats, which are larger, with grey-brown fur, a pointed nose, large visible ears and a long, scaly tail.
Another thing people don’t realise is how important the furry little rodents are in our river ecosystems. They are a prey species for some of our native predators like owls and otters. In addition, water voles are ecosystem engineers, as their burrowing can help promote soil microbial activity, drainage, and soil quality. They also help with biodiversity as their activity created habitat for other creatures. Their grazing means that no single plant species dominates the bank and their habit of cropping grasses disperses seeds and pollen.
Their eating habits are very endearing: they hold grass in their front paws to eat, while sitting on their hind legs! They also eat fruit, tubers and bulbs. Water voles eat around 80% of their body weight each day.
Water voles build tunnel systems containing their living quarters and nests. They have three or four litters a year, each with between two and ten pups. The pups will be independent after four weeks.
The History of Water Voles
Water voles have a history of epic European journeys, arriving in Britain in two stages. During the last ice age, black water voles arrived from southern Europe. The second lineage, the brown water vole from the Balkans, came to Britain 8,000-12,000 years ago over the now-submerged land bridge known as Doggerland. Today, black water voles are found in Scotland and the brown water voles live in England and Wales.
The little rodents used to be common all over the UK, and there were 8 million of them at the beginning of the early twentieth century. During the first world war, bank-side vegetation was removed to make room for crops, destroying much of the water voles’ habitat. Intensification of agriculture and canalisation of water ways after the second world war further fragmented and degraded their homes.
A devastating blow to the water voles came with the introduction of American mink. These came from fur farms set up from the 1920s; some mink escaped and thousands were released in the late 1990s by animal rights activists. Mink farming for fur was banned in the UK in 2000, but by this time mink were established as an invasive species in the UK.
In America, mink eat muskrats, which resemble water voles – so the mink naturally started hunting water voles in the UK. Water voles are adapted to native UK predators through high birth rates and escaping into their burrows. The problem is that female mink are small enough to enter burrows and decimate entire water vole families.
By the 1990s, water voles had disappeared from 90% of their former range. In 2002, they were declared extinct in the whole of Devon and Cornwall and there are estimated to be just 100,000 water voles across the UK.
Water voles are also threatened by continued habitat loss and fragmentation as well as poor water quality. Water voles are affected by water pollution and through eutrophication (when water becomes over-rich in plant nutrients, so it becomes overgrown in algae and other aquatic plants. When the plants die and decompose, the water is depleted of oxygen and becomes lifeless).
There is some good news, however. Water voles are protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) and are a UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species. They have also been reintroduced in Devon and Cornwall, meaning that water voles have now returned to every county in England.
The British Wildlife Centre in Surrey has been breeding water voles for many years and has released over 20 in their nature reserve so far this year! I visited this summer and loved seeing their foxes, red squirrels, otters, pine martens, polecats and hedgehogs up close!
Water Voles in Literature
One of the most famous water voles in British literature is Ratty from in Kenneth Grahame’s (1908) The Wind in the Willows (Grahame refers to Ratty as a “water rat,” but there is really no such thing: just brown rats, black rats and water voles). I’ve always loved Ratty for his kindness and his devotion to the river (“he seemed really to be afraid that the river would run away if he wasn’t there to look after it”).
Stella Gibbons’s (1932) Cold Comfort Farm, is a parody of the romanticised accounts of rural life that were popular at the time. Urk’s idiosyncratic relationship with the water voles is part of Gibbon’s satire.
Victorian poet C. S. Calverley’s ‘Shelter’ speaks of a water vole with a “a shy, soft eye” who plops into the water to escape a gang of men.
Spotting a Water Vole
It’s difficult to see water voles because they like to hide in thick vegetation, but as they have poor eyesight you might be able to watch them for a while if you can locate them. Water voles are active during the day, and they spend their time collecting grasses and reeds to take back to their burrow and eating out in the open. April to September is a good time to look, because of the vegetation along the water banks. Also, breeding season occurs at this time.
Water voles are waterside mammals and they prefer slow moving rivers, lakes and canals with thick vegetation. They stay close to their burrows, so it’s a good idea to look for these first. Find shallow, stable water and look for burrow entrances and bolt holes on banks at the water’s edge, high enough so the burrow systems don’t flood. Burrow entrances are usually wider than they are high, the size that could accommodate a tennis ball (although erosion might make the entrance appear larger). You can distinguish these from rat burrows, because the latter have a fan-shaped spoil outside and are linked by well-trodden runs.
Burrows often have a ‘lawn’ of chewed grass outside and piles of chewed grass with 45 degree cuts at the ends. As water voles like to eat grass in the same place, these piles can be found around the water’s edge near the burrows. They will also gnaw through willow branches up to 1 inch in diameter
Another sign is water vole latrines. These are piles of rounded, cigar shaped green-brown or dark black-red droppings, about the size of baked beans (unlike rat droppings, bigger, pointed at one end and more scattered than water vole latrines). Water voles mark their territory with these when they are breeding from February to October. Water voles scent mark these, then drum them with their hind feet, so the latrines look like a flattened mass of old droppings with new ones on top.
You can also look for footprints. Water voles have star-shaped footprints, as opposed to rats, whose toes tend to be forward facing with a longer heel.
A final approach is to look at the water itself. They’re known for making a loud ‘plop' when they enter the water (unlike rats, which won’t dive if alarmed). Also, ripples close to the banks can often be a sign of a water vole just below the surface. Finally, they swim with a slow, doggy-paddle stroke, which means they don’t make the same sharp v-shape in the water as rats.
Find Out More
If you’re interested in conservation and wildlife, we have a blog series on British wildlife and a series on the people and wildlife of South Asia, from the altitudes of the Himalayas to the dense mangrove forests of Bangladesh!
We also offer online private tuition in our interdisciplinary course, Culture and Conservation, in which you can explore the links between our natural and cultural heritage and study wildlife and cultures from across the world! This is a template of a possible study route and can be combined, adapted, or designed from scratch to suit your interests and goals.
Dr. Orton will work with you to design a course of private tutorials tailored to your needs, ability and schedule. Click the link to find out what it’s like to work with her and contact us to find out more!
Do More
For those who would like to take action to preserve our wild spaces, there’s plenty you can do. If you're lucky enough to have some land, you could plant a wood from scratch (click the link to read about how we are planting our own native woodland). Even if you don’t have a big garden, there are plenty of things you can do to help biodiversity in your area. Why not put up a solitary bee nesting box or insect home, create a woodpile as a habitat for small creatures or leave small areas of your garden to go wild?
You can get involved with the National Water Vole Monitoring Programme, which is open to anyone, regardless of previous experience or knowledge. If you live in the Leicestershire area, contact UOCEAN for information on river clean-ups. This can really help water voles and other wildlife like otters.
Think about your own area and how you can protect vulnerable but important parts of your own environment. You might even want to start your own project investigating the cultural importance of wildlife in your area. Dr. Orton works with independent scholars undertaking their own research for an independent project, people writing a book or simply those who have a personal interest. Click the link to find out what it’s like to work with her and contact us to get started!
Reach Out
We’d love to see what you’re doing to help wildlife in your area. Follow the Conservation highlight reel on the Orton Academy Instagram to see what we’re getting up to and tag us in to any snaps you put up!
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