Ratty comes home: water voles thrive again on Hertfordshire riverbank

Having suffered a 90% drop in population, they still face extinction in Britain - but a new initiative offers a glimmer of hopeA hundred and fifty water voles were last week settling into new homes on the riverbanks of Hertfordshire. The animals had been released from pens the previous week as part of a campaign to halt the devastating drop in Arvicola amphibius number across the British Isles over the past 50 years.Once widespread in the UK, water voles - whose most known incarnation is Ratty in Wind in the Willows - have suffered a 90% drop in population since the 1970s. Feral mink, which kill young voles in their nests, in combination with major changes in land use, have resulted in the widespread eradication of a species that was once a ubiquitous presence along the banks of Britain's rivers. Continue reading...