Like a number of other native species, many of us may first have been introduced to the water vole through literature. The popular children’s story ‘Wind in the Willows’ featured Ratty – a river-loving fellow with good manners, a tidy home and a fondness for his friends. Despite his name, Ratty was in fact a water vole.

Meticulous and tidy

As the character’s name would suggest, the water vole is similar in appearance to the brown rat. But they’re smaller (14-22cm in length), their noses are rounder, their ears are smaller (usually hidden behind their chestnut brown fur) and their furry tails are shorter. Much like Ratty, they are meticulous and tidy – their burrows in steep river banks are usually neat holes, around 4-8cm in diameter, with carefully gnawed ‘lawns’ in the surrounding area.

Their water repellent fur and plump figure make them buoyant and allow them to glide easily along rivers and streams. Their herbivorous diet includes grasses, reeds and rushes, which they’ll often chew away at and leave small neat piles of nibbled stalks along banks.

When Kenneth Graham wrote the book in 1908, water voles were enjoying a prosperous time with over eight million inhabiting our waterways. With plenty of watercourses rich in vegetation and banks perfect for burrows, they were widespread throughout the UK.

Intensive farming methods are destroying habitats

Sadly, their time of prosperity was not to last. Due to the increase in intensive farming methods, their precious habitat began to disappear. This was accompanied by the introduction of the American mink in the 1920s. Originally brought to the UK to satisfy the growing fur trade, mink were frequently released into the wild and preyed upon the water vole. Surveys carried out in the late 1990s by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust indicated that county populations had declined by 83% over a 25 year period, leaving just a few fragmented populations – a statistic that reflected the decline across the UK.

In response, a number of conservation projects were set up to help this beloved creature. In Gloucestershire the Cotswold Rivers Project aims to stop the decline and recreate appropriate habitats so that the water vole can thrive once more. Advice and information is given to landowners, while habitats are managed to allow wildlife to travel between sites more easily.

As a result, water vole numbers have increased in the county, with isolated populations spreading to new areas. Greystones Farm Nature Reserve in Bourton-on-the-Water remains a stronghold for the precious species. So there is hope for the water vole yet – as long as careful conservation work continues.

Look out for water voles near watercourses

It is always worth looking out for water voles when near watercourses. We’d be grateful for sightings. Look for the burrows along steep sided banks, the mounds of chewed vegetation and grazed ‘lawns’. Their droppings look like dark green/brown Tic Tacs, oval in shape, 8-12mm in length and odourless.

Of course, the most obvious sign that there is a population nearby is spotting the furry creatures on banks and in water. However, like Ratty, they are only really fond of their friends and quite shy with strangers so spotting them can be tricky. If you think there might be one nearby, stay quiet and listen out carefully for a gentle ‘plop’. Ratty may just have dropped into the water, heading downstream to see Mole, Toad and Badger.