 Water voles are under threat |
A sewage treatment site in Nottinghamshire has been redesigned to cater for water voles. Concerned for their survival, water company Severn Trent bred the animals and released them on Friday.
Fifty baby water voles - the offspring of eight parents taken in 2003 - were released.
They were put into a series of protected pools and ditches created at the Kirkby in Ashfield sewage site, but are free to roam into the wild.
Fast decline
They were all microchipped and bar-coded, so their weight and health can be monitored.
Conservationists warn water voles are the fastest declining mammal in Britain, mainly due to predators and loss of habitat.
The UK is thought to have had about seven million water voles in 1989, but fewer than 900,000 in 1996.
Perhaps the best-known water vole was "Ratty" from the Wind in the Willows.
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