Successful Second Water Vole Reintroduction into The River Gara

The Habitat Group have just completed the second of four water vole releases into the River Gara. There are now another 133 voles out in the wild busy digging homes, finding mates and hopefully soon producing litters of little volettes.

With nearly 90% of Britain’s water voles gone, largely due to predation by escaped American mink, reintroductions such as this are the only way we’ll re-establish populations. Having had mink traps out for over a year, The Habitat Group have established that there were no mink left in the Gara valley, this gave the green light to release the water voles. Made famous by the mis-named Ratty in Wind in the Willows, this iconic little animal plays a pivotal role in the riverbank ecosystem.

In total, 800 voles will be released into different areas of the River Gara over the space of two years. The first 200 went out last September, with a follow up survey that showed they’d established themselves very successfully. This time there were two new sites on the Gara earmarked, a pair of ponds that lie alongside the river in the Clovelly valley and a much trickier site on the river near the tiny hamlet of Hansell.

Bred by Derek Gow on his farm in West Devon, the voles arrived first thing in the morning and each animal was then checked over under the watchful eyes of the assembled Habitat Group volunteers. Once pronounced fit and strong they were put a few at a time into cages, carried down to the ponds and positioned by the water. They spend the next six days there, with an opening made in the cage on the fourth day, while they acclimatise to their new home.

Once the first 40 voles were all in place the rest were loaded up and driven to Hansell. There more volunteers were waiting to force their way through chest high vegetation, trip over fallen trees and sink to their knees in boggy water carrying the cages to their appointed places. It was a remote and difficult site but absolute voley heaven for the little critters.

That left the last 30 voles, the biggest and strongest of the group, to be let go in a ‘hard’ release, the most satisfying part of the whole day. With no way of getting further down river, the voles were taken back up the hill and then, with everyone carrying a couple of voles each in a travelling cage, the group stumbled and slid back down the slope through the woods to arrive at a floodplain further downriver. Carefully choosing a spot with lots of cover, each person took off the cage lid and gently pulled back the straw.

For the first time in their lives the cage-bred voles saw the one place where they feel safe, a river, and dived straight in to swim against the current until they could disappear into the bankside greenery. 

Over the next year The Habitat Group will be introducing another 470 voles further along the river and then have the satisfaction of watching them slowly spread back along the Gara and up into its tributaries and ultimately down into Slapton Ley. Water voles usually see you long before you see them but if one day you hear a characteristic little plop as you’re walking by the Ley then you’ll know that Ratty and his friends have made it that far and that’ll mean they’re here to stay.

To learn more about the reintroduction or to hear how the voles are doing, visit The Habitat Group.

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