Two of our team members, Rory and Sarah, recently attended the Species Recovery Trust’s Water Vole Survey and Ecology course in West Devon. The course provided a great opportunity to study water vole field signs in the wild and learn more about the ecology and history of this once common animal. Water voles were once present in nearly all water courses in the UK, but due to habitat loss, population fragmentation, water pollution and predation by the introduced American mink, water voles are sadly now absent from more than 90% of their previous range. Catchment wide reintroduction programs, in combination with mink eradication, have been successful in returning this important prey species to certain targeted areas of the UK, however, the species is still experiencing one of the fastest declines of any UK mammal. Find out more and get involved with monitoring in your area at https://ptes.org/get-informed/facts-figures/water-vole/. Many thanks to the Species Recovery Trust and Derek Gowe for an excellent training course!
