Speaking at WWT London Wetland Centre in Barnes, the Minister for Biodiversity, Joan Ruddock, announced that water voles will be protected against being killed, injured or taken from the wild. Police will also have the power to prosecute where water voles have been deliberately persecuted.

WWT has thriving water vole populations at six of its wetland centres, including WWT London Wetland Centre where they were successfully introduced in 2001. The centre is now home to 3-400 individuals.

Debbie Pain, Director of Conservation at WWT, welcomed the new measures, “Water voles have suffered the most dramatic decline of any British mammal. Over the last century numbers have plummeted to a tiny fraction and they are completely gone from many areas where they were once common. So we’re delighted with today’s news that they will get proper protection. It makes the law much clearer for people who manage land and it gives the police the power to deal with people who deliberately kill water voles.”

WWT has been actively working to maintain and then expand water vole populations on the land it manages wherever suitable. Water voles are present at WWT Llanelli, Martin Mere, Slimbridge and Welney Wetland Centres. WWT has also reintroduced them to WWT Arundel Wetland Centre and, most notably, successfully introduced them to the London Wetland Centre in 2001 with the Environment Agency.

Immortalised as Ratty in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, the water vole was common and widespread at the start of the 20th century. Since then they have suffered a massive decline in numbers and distribution. There is only one water vole alive today for every twenty that were alive then.

The loss of wetland habitat has been major factor in the water voles’ decline. The spread of American mink, a recent introduction to the UK, has compounded their decline. American mink have become the water voles’ main predator. Water voles are now so few and spread out that their future is at risk from individual incidents, such as accidental poisoning. Today’s announcement makes the law much clearer for everyone whose business could affect water voles.

Further information available at www.wwt.org.uk