Water Vole Project

Many people, including pest controllers, builders and developers, mistake the endangered water vole for the brown rat and accidentally poison them or disturb their homes.

Water voles are the UK's fastest declining mammal and the risk of further decline due to being mistaken for brown rats will have serious implications for an already vulnerable mammal. The key to overcoming this problem is to spot the difference between a water vole and a brown rat and for people to take an active part in reporting any water vole discoveries to The Wildlife Trusts.

What to look for?
There are several clear characteristics to distinguish between a water vole and a rat. The water vole has small hidden ears, silky mid-brown fur, a blunt nose and a shorter furry tail, whereas the brown rat has big ears, grey brown fur, a pointed nose and a long, pink and scaly hairless tale. Water voles also feed on vegetation whereas rats are opportunist feeders and will eat a variety of foods. See the leaflet 'Know Your Vole' Rat Control and Water Vole Conservation (currently being updated) for further, more detailed information, about the differences between rats and water voles, how to identify them and what you can do to help.

Water voles have disappeared from almost 90 per cent of the sites they occupied in the UK in the last 60 years due to the loss of their riverbank homes and being preyed upon by the non-native American mink. The Wildlife Trusts across the UK have recorded many cases of accidental poisoning and in one instance the extermination of an entire group of water voles.

Follow our tips to Know Your Vole
Water voles can be confussed with brown rats which are often found near water

How can you help?
The Wildlife Trusts are calling for members of the public to inform their local Wildlife Trust when they spot a water vole. We'd like you to tell us about the place where you saw the water vole(s), and you can do this by contacting your Local Wildlife Trust.

The Wildlife Trusts’ Top Tips For A Water Vole Friendly Garden

If your garden backs on to a stream, river, canal or other watercourse:

1. Leave a buffer strip (ideally two metres or more wide) of grasses and other plants along the water’s edge to provide food and cover for water voles.
2. Mow the buffer strip once a year in autumn to limit scrub colonisation and
   increase plant diversity.
3. Keep banksides open to encourage the lush grasses and other green plants
   water voles favour.
4. Consider coppicing existing trees and shrubs to increase light levels if
   appropriate.

If your garden is close to a river, stream, canal or other watercourse:

1. Create a pond with an adjacent wetland area, lining the pond in the traditional
   way with clay if you can, rather than with butyl or other synthetic materials.
2. Site your pond away from overhanging trees and check the location of service
   cables and drains before digging!
3. Give your pond a varied bank profile, with banks of around 45 degrees for water
   voles, and shallower sloping areas that can utilised by amphibians and
   invertebrates.
4. Ensure that the pond has areas where water is 25cm-50cm deep.
5. Ensure there is open space approximately 10 cm deep along the base of at least one garden boundary to allow access for water voles and other wildlife.
6. Create a shelf around the edge of the pond that can be planted with marginal
   plants such as Yellow Flag Iris and rushes.
7. Use the Natural History Museum’s postcode plants database for help in choosing suitable native plants for your pond. (Access the database at
   www.rattysrefuge.co.uk)
8. Make sure that you don’t buy any non-native invasive aquatic plants for your
   pond. Check out the links on www.rattysrefuge.co.uk for advice and information on which plants to avoid.