Water voles are back in south Cornwall for the first time since the 1990s – just one of many UK releases
By ALEXANDRA PEARCE BROOMHEAD
I t’s not often that respectable conservationists dare to utter the c-word, but when a small, furred head pops up above its straw refuge, there is more than one exclamation of “Oh, they’re so cute!”
We are gathered in the yard of Trelusback Farm, Cornwall, helping to ferry cages from a van and stack them in a small barn, the only refuge from the dour weather. Apples and carrots are being chopped, lists being crosschecked and release cages being readied. Occasionally a soft brown face peers out to observe the proceedings, nostrils flaring to reveal a flash of bright orange teeth.
But amidst the adorable animals, vintage tractors and wistful stories of childhood sightings, we are conscious of the seriousness of the occasion. We are preparing for a groundbreaking moment: 116 water voles are about to take their first tentative steps here, the first time the species has graced south Cornwall for over two decades.
Water voles, small riparian mammals with chestnut-fur, stubby noses and furry tails, were declared extinct in Cornwall in the late 1990s. There were successful releases in north Cornwall in 2014 but, until now, in south Cornwall you were more likely to be confusing a vole with a rat – the two animals can look strikingly similar, particularly during brief encounters. Generations raised on Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows water vole protagonist, misleadingly named Ratty, can probably shoulder some of the blame for that.
Water voles began to decline in the mid-20th century. By 2018, 94 per cent had disappeared from previously populated sites across the UK, earning the species the unfortunate title of ‘Britain’s fastest declining mammal’. Habitat fragmentation due to development, management changes, pollution and overgrazing left water voles homeless, but their decline was exacerbated by the American mink. Released from fur farms in the 1990s by overzealous animal rights campaigners, these invasive mammals wreaked havoc on the countryside, wiping out water vole populations and leaving them endangered in England and Wales.
The loss of the water vole is an ecological disaster. As an ecosystem engineer, its importance cannot be overstated. They burrow into wetland banks, causing impacted soil to dry out and making it a preferable habitat for plant life, and they sit at the bottom of the food chain, providing a vital food source for a ran
