Water Vole (Arvicola amphibius) Photo By Peter Trimming from Croydon, England – Vole on Boot Hill, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36964742

Dear Readers, when I was growing up we often went to Wanstead Park as a family – we were all crammed together in our little house in Stratford, East London, and it’s the first place where I remember feeling that I was really in ‘the wild’. There was a rabbit warren, and  you could hear cuckoos in the spring. There were a series of ornamental lakes that used to belong to the Wanstead Estate, and there was a heronry tucked away between two of them. But most of all, I remember the water voles – as you walked along the bank you could hear the ‘plop’ as they dived, and if you were quiet and lucky you could watch them grooming or nibbling away on a plant.

Alas, last time I went there was not a single water vole. The M11 (built since I was a child) was an incessant roar in the background. Where the water voles had gone I had no idea, but they have very specific requirements: they need marginal water plants, which provide cover from predators and food, and they need banks into which they can dig tunnels for breeding and sleeping. Furthermore, they are predated by American Mink, some of which escaped from fur farms and some of which were ‘liberated’ by well-meaning animal rights activists. And finally, in some areas the animals are constantly disturbed by dogs, even where these are meant to be kept on leads. What chance is there for beloved ‘Ratty’?

Here’s a description of ideal habitat from the Water Vole.org page. Actually it sounds lovely. If I’m ever reincarnated as a water vole, I’d like to live here…

“It is easy to provide a home for water voles, so that populations can thrive or expand and move into your waterway, pond or lake. They prefer soft, undisturbed earth banks which they can burrow into with wide margins which have tall grasses, stands of rosebay willowherb, purple loosestrife, meadowsweet, or nettles, often fringed with emergent rushes, sedges or reeds, to give them food and cover. They will gnaw on the roots and bark of sallow and willow, as well as the rhizomes, bulbs and roots of herbaceous plants during winter. Water voles also inhabit extensive reed-beds where they weave rugby ball-sized nests made of reeds. They will avoid sites that are heavily grazed, trampled or over-shaded by dense scrub or trees, but will happily live underneath the light shade of brambles and like to eat the leaves and the berries. Thorny brambles also give them protection from their many predators which they can hide beneath, although these need some management over winter to make sure they do not completely block passage through the stream for any kingfisher fishing there. It is worth bearing in mind that some solitary bees overwinter in the hollow stems of bramble, so when any management is undertaken it is best to leave the cuttings in a pile in an area which will not flood (if possible).”

Sadly, my pond isn’t big enough for water voles (and being a pond it doesn’t move), which is a shame, but on the other hand I suspect that the cats would make quick work of the poor little things.

And,  judging by a survey conducted along the River Lee in 2022, they are actually making something of a comeback. This is particularly true in the northern part of the range, which goes from Ware to Waltham Cross, but to my amazement there are also signs of water voles in the Coppermill Stream, which flows through my beloved and much-visited Walthamstow Wetlands.

From https://animalia.bio/european-water-vole

The water vole survey was previously conducted in 2012, and, when compared to the current survey the results are hopeful. Although water voles have disappeared from some stretches of the Lee, they seem to have popped up in sites where they weren’t present in 2012, especially where habitat has been improved for them. But the most surprising thing is that at the Coppermill Stream, not only were there signs of water voles, but also of at least one otter.

Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) Photo By Alexander Leisser – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48159525

Who would have thought, back when otters were critically-endangered in the UK, that they’d make such a comeback that they’d be living in the middle of London? Very exciting and, as otters mostly eat fish, not a big threat to the water voles. I can’t help thinking that the fact that the London Wildlife Trust are actively managing Walthamstow Wetlands (which is still a working reservoir) for biodiversity, and that only assistance dogs are allowed on to the site, has made this place a sanctuary for both water voles and otters. Long may it continue, and here’s hoping that public pressure to reverse falling water quality all over the UK will succeed in ensuring that rivers can support water voles, otters and all the other creatures, big and small, that depend on them.