Water voles thrive in slow-running water courses

Once so common across Britain it was immortalised in the children's classic Wind in the Willows, the water vole is now declining faster than any other of our mammals.

A biodiversity partnership set up by Gwynedd Council and Snowdonia National Park is now calling on volunteers to join in the drive to save the species by helping them map its populations.

Despite being in acute decline in the rest of the UK, the water vole distribution in north west Wales is thought to have remained relatively stable over the last 10 years.

Populations in Gwynedd and Anglesey are among the UK's strongest.

The partnership is looking for volunteers to attend a training day at Plas Tan-y-bwlch centre in Maentwrog to teach them how to identify the animals and their nesting grounds.

The water vole has vanished from three quarters of the sites it had been found at before Aisling Carrick, Gwynedd council

Loss of habitat, accidental poisoning, changes in water levels and an increase in levels of non-native mink have all contributed to making the water vole an endangered species in Britain.

"The water vole is the fastest declining mammal in the UK," said Aisling Carrick, Gwynedd's Biodiversity Officer.

"A study of the species in 1990 showed that it had vanished from three quarters of the sites it had been found at before.

"They mainly live along streams, in ditches and riverbanks - mainly slow flowing water courses where there are soft clay banks for them to burrow and nest in."

Upland areas

Kate Williamson, Snowdonia National Park's Biodiversity Coordinator, added: "There used to be millions of them, but the numbers are falling rapidly.

"We hope to find exactly what the situation is, especially in the upland areas where we have not looked before.

"There is now evidence that there are larger populations than previously thought there.

"So we are concentrating our survey in the uplands and aim to create a map of the species' population within the park."

The training event will start indoors and will then be followed by some outside work looking for water vole burrows, tracks and signs.

Volunteers can then carry out surveys in their own time, either choosing one of the hotspot target areas or a favourite local walk.

Escape

Anglesey, north Gwynedd and the Llyn Peninsula have all been identified as key areas for the species.

It is thought the relatively low level of mink sightings recorded in the Llyn Peninsula area could be one reason why populations are stronger there.

American mink have thrived in the British countryside since they escaped from fur farms in the 1960s, and water vole are among their favourite prey.

The training day is being held in Plas Tan-y-bwlch, Maentwrog on Saturday, 31 May, between 1100 BST and 1400 BST.