Endangered water voles are ready to recolonise the streams and rivers of the New Forest 24 years after animal activists inadvertently wiped them out by releasing 7,000 mink from a fur farm. In 1998 me...
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The Telegraph
2022-09-04T13:46:49Z
At the time ecologists slammed the act, saying the marauding mammals would endanger local wildlife which could take years to recover.
About 2,000 of the escaped American mink were shot or run over by local farmers and landowners or caught in traps.
Among the native species targeted by the carnivorous creatures was the local population of water voles, the small aquatic rodents immortalised in Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows.
Numbers of water voles in the UK have massively declined in recent years due to habitat loss, housing development and pollution, but in the New Forest they were obliterated by the impact of the mink.
It has taken more than two decades for the invasive mink to disappear and now experts have deemed it safe for water voles to make a return.
Ecologists at the Environment Agency have released 50 voles that have bred in captivity into a secret stream near Ringwood.
They have joined a handful of wild voles that had to be relocated from a waterway in nearby Salisbury, while another 50 will be introduced to the same location next spring.
It is hoped the cute rodents will quickly breed and recolonise the waterways of the New Forest. By 2027 it is expected that there will be a population of 1,000 of them.
Andy Wallis, of the Environment Agency, said: "Over the last 40 years the water vole population has dropped by 90 per cent.
"They are one of the most endangered species in the UK.
"We really need about 50 voles to create a survival population."
Coral Edgcumbe, an ecologist involved in the project, said: "In the 1990s 7,000 mink were released from a fur farm just up the road and that decimated the local population of water voles.
"Although the mink are now declining, water voles can't recolonise without help.
"They are an important species in wetlands and create habitat for a number of other species as well."
Water voles are a legally protected species and also Britain's fastest declining mammal.
She added: "If we do nothing to help all the endangered species then biodiversity in the country is going to really suffer. This is one small step to making sure that doesn't happen.
"The water vole is becoming a lost species so it is really important that we help support their return to their natural habitat.
"I am really hopeful that in a year's time the population will be on the increase and the area will be full of them.
"We will be putting another 50 voles in next year to ensure that they have the best possible chance of recolonising."
