The Water Vole - A Quick Guide

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'The Water Vole - A Quick Guide' was produced entirely by volunteers. The organisations referred to in the video and in the text above had no involvement in the making of the video.
Transcript of the video:
“Britain's fastest declining wild mammal”
The Wildlife Trusts
“One of the most rapid and serious declines of any British wild mammal ever.”
People's Trust for Endangered Species
(Transcript of the video narration)
Adult water voles are about the same size as a rat, only a little smaller.
They have a chubby, round-faced appearance and their fur is slightly chestnutty brown, although there are some water voles in Scotland which are black.
The ears are small... and fur-covered… and difficult to make out.
Fur also covers their feet and tail but these are often wet, giving the impression that the skin is dark.
They are strong swimmers and float higher in the water than a rat.
Water voles are important engineers in the landscape and other species benefit from their activities.
They need places where there aren't too many trees - where there's plenty of light ….and wide margins of lush overgrown vegetation.
Small channels and ditches, especially where there isn't a fast current, are a favourite, as long as the banks are left to grow.
Before this stream was tidied up by mowing it had a colony of water voles living along it.
Extensive grazing right up to the water's edge also prevents them from colonising.
They don't just live along rivers and streams though - they can be found on canals, lakes, ponds and in reedbeds too.
They have lots of predators and are constantly alert for danger so they're difficult to sneak up on - it can be hard to get a good view.
But because they're mainly vegetarian they have to eat a lot - about 80 percent of their body weight in food each day... so you can usually tell they're around just by all the nibbled off storks left behind.
Little piles of plant stems with the ends cut off at 45 degrees are an unmistakable trademark. And they take food into their burrows to eat.
Burrows are along the waters edge and in the bank above - and wider than they are high - up to a size you could roll a tennis ball into.
Some of the burrows will have distinctive grazed lawns around them.
Another tell-tale sign to look for are big piles of droppings. Droppings are cylindrical (like a cigar), blunt at both ends and don't smell. The colour varies between green, brown or black.
Water voles have many natural predators that they've evolved to live with but not the introduced mink. A breeding female can wipe out an entire water vole colony and in combination with habitat loss, it's thought that mink are the biggest factor driving water vole numbers to an all time low.
[Brown rat]
Water voles are easily confused with the much more common brown rat.
Rats have a more pointed head, hairless, sticking out ears and pale hands and feet, also without fur on them.
They have a very different diet - and seldom bother with eating vegetation. They like food that's high in starch and protein... and they'll jump and climb like a monkey to get at it.
The tail is scaley, thicker and longer than a water vole's, almost as long as the rest of their body.
Rat droppings are larger, foul-smelling, pointed at one end and are not left in piles like the water vole's.

[@taraelizabethdensley9475]

Aww! They are cute little creatures

[@helenashton5334]

Thank you Stephen for a really fascinating and educational video. I’ve not seen a water vole so close up, I love the way the gnaw at the food and they are much bigger than I had thought. Wonderful and thank you as always 😊

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

Hold their food with almost human like hands, don't they. Thanks for watching. Lots more of them in the full River film now free on my channel.

[@helenashton5334]

@@WildlifeInCloseUp They do indeed yes. I will take a look, thank you again.

[@shinetta87]

I've never heard of water voles until now. We don't have them where I live. However I have a nice group of meadow voles living in my side yard. They're so cute and I love watching them.

[@lindarevere5846]

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR EFFORTS==LOVE YOUR SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@TheGodlessGuitarist]

They are so beautiful. I saved a small one from a cat in our road one day. Gorgeous little thing.

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

Wonderful aren't they.

[@TheGodlessGuitarist]

@@WildlifeInCloseUp They really are. Somehow the camera doesn't do them justice. The little fella I rescued was a surprisingly fearless little chap. He actually let me pet him on the head a few times before I released him into the undergrowth.

[@bernardshum2719]

I also get to see this video as I also get two cats at my front yard meowing for ownership of a vole. I brought some snacks to them and they left happily, and the vole can went home safely.

[@bobsvanthings2226]

Thank you, well filmed and informative ;-)

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

You are welcome.

[@milanek1527]

@@WildlifeInCloseUp in my country vole is a bad word lmao im from czech

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

@@milanek1527 Is the meaning "The crop of a bird or insect.The stomach of an animal"?

[@milanek1527]

@@WildlifeInCloseUp no

[@marklimbrick]

great introduction, beautiful images which must have taken a lot of patience to film. Still trying to found out what they do over winter. Our Trust just cut all the stream margins back to mud, despite my suggestion to the volunteers not to take away everything as I'd been watching the voles eating grass stems. I'm going to get some underwater and 'vole-level' film of them before they decide to move on elsewhere. Inspiring video you have here.

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

They tend to stay in their borrows in winter but don't strictly hibernate. There is little reason for them venture out and risk predation when there is no nice vegetation to feed on.

[@arjen4120]

@@WildlifeInCloseUp how do they get enough food in winter then?

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

@@arjen4120 They have an underground food store and they keep their activity to an absolute minimum which reduces their need for food considerably. Not many of them survive the winter but they breed very fast in summer to make up for it. Jo Cartmell has written about them here: watervole.org.uk/home/the-water-voles-year/

[@martynkal.1248]

Thank you for this educational video! It was great

[@elmbobby]

Some pheasants calling in the background. Very nice video.

[@patrickmcleod111]

**Damn people, stop mowing every square inch of grass all the way to the creek edge! Leave some natural aquatic plants to grow there. Its not going to hurt you to do that, and it may even save time and money!

[@Thisisahandle701]

Exactly just leave it alone, why do people hate vegetation like it's some kind of mess that needs to be cleaned up?

[@ndavies5968]

I spotted 3 water voles last weekend in Northampton Abington Park.

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

It would be worthwhile registering their presence with the local authority and that they are aware of their responsibilities and of the laws protecting water voles.

[@ndavies5968]

@@WildlifeInCloseUp I've shown my dad now and he is pretty sure they are bank voles. I'm not sure, they are the same size as a small Guinea pig that's all I could see as it was quite dark.

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

Guinea pig size sounds like water vole, especially if they were very close to water - they like to be able to dive into water if scared (you can often hear the 'plop').

[@ndavies5968]

@@WildlifeInCloseUp I've only see them once and the water was too shallow to probably listen out for a plop. I've been back down where they were tonight but I think I was a little early. Didn't see them but I left some oats if they are any good for them

[@ndavies5968]

@@WildlifeInCloseUp which domesticated rodent would you compare the size of a bank vole too? I keep Guinea pigs and these voles I'm seeing are close to the size of my small adult Guinea pig, I keep rats aswell and they are bigger than a big male rat.

[@sandrastreifel6452]

Reminds me of Ratty, from Wind in the Willows. I think the closest here in North America, would be a muskrat or beaver?

[@indyreno2933]

It's actually the muskrat, in fact both muskrats and water voles are members of the hamster family.

[@richmondlandersenfells2238]

Never actually heard of a water vole before. When I saw the thumbnail i already thought it was a lemming before reading the title.

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

I probably wouldn't have either if I hadn't grown up by a river that had them. Never imagined then they would become so scarce 40+ years on.

[@nickswildlifefootage9392]

fantastic film . is it ok to share this on my friends of the water face book page.

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

Yes, please share it Nick.

[@nickswildlifefootage9392]

Thank you.

[@Stef.with.an.F]

Dear Stephen de Vere, I am an MSc Species Identification and Survey Skills student at the University of Reading. I am going to do a presentation on water vole survey and mitigation and I would like to use a frame grab comparing water vole and brown rat from your video, if allowed. I am therefore writing to ask for royalty free permission to use these photographs (I will credit you both under the photographs and in the reference). I will greatly appreciate it if the permission is granted. Thank you very much for your kind attention. I am looking forward to your favourable reply. Yours sincerely, Stefanie Woo

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

Hi Stefanie, yes please go ahead and use anything in the video guide you like. A credit to britishnaturefilms.com would be great, thank you.

[@Stef.with.an.F]

Stephen de Vere Thank you so much! I had given British Nature Films a credit. Wonderful video. Thank you again!

[@nickswildlifefootage9392]

is it ok to share this on my fb water vole group

[@WildlifeInCloseUp]

Yes please! That's what it's for - to get the knowledge out there and hopefully make a difference.

[@peterroach4768]

nick lay wildlife. Devil Ray's

[@MrLarrypaige]

Water voles are "herbivores" not vegetarians. Vegetarianism is a lifestyle choice.

[@localdude2979]

The fit Rat vs the Chubby Vole

[@wildfloweratheart1111]

Francis Bourgeois is that you?

[@elizabethmroz2965]

When I was in sixth grade, my class dissected owl pellets and I found a skull. When I looked closer and measured correctly, I realized it was a vole. I'm sorry for my sins.

[@felicitytoad]

😊😊😊😊

[@zojanovak1926]

😻😻😻

[@crystalc1ear]

vole