Water voles

[Mark Swaby]

My local river the Colne in West London had a massive population of water voles when I was growing up in the 60's and 70's.The release of Mink from farms devastated the population and they became extinct. This season on one stretch I manage we have started to see a few return. Its like being back in time and a big thumbs up to what we are doing on our river habitat . Do you see any water voles on the rivers you fish or are they as rare as reported.

 

[Terry Simner]

Hey Mark, one thing I noticed on the Teme was that not long after the otters arrived, the mink were much less obvious. I reckon the otters pushed the mink out. Now I know that mink prey on water voles, but I'm not so sure otters have the same appetite/ability to catch them. Soooo, maybe the arrival of otters has helped restore the water vole population? It's a thought.
(Not seen voles on the Teme though, before or after the otters arrived).

 

[Joe Winstanley]

I definitely see a lot less of them across Cheshire now then I did 10-15 years ago. A perfect storm of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and mink predation has hammered them.

Water voles are fecund little blighters, a classic r-selected species, so when you do come across them, its not unusual to find a lot of them. Being such prolific breeders they are pretty good at coping at a population level with predation from otters, but mink really are the kiss of death. Whilst otters might opportunistically predate a small proportion of a colony, mink are small enough to enter their burrows. As such they can wipe out a whole breeding colony in a relatively short space of time.

There is some evidence that otters displace mink, not necessarily by intraguild predation and competition as one might assume. Interestingly some studies have found that the proportion of fish in minks diet declines notably when their territories overlap - I guess there are two very differing conclusions that could be drawn from that..

https://www.researchgate.net/public...nt_with_recovery_of_native_otters_Lutra_lutra

 

[Richard Bruton]

Foor what its worth i saw one 2 years a go on the island at Fordingbridge Park on the Hants Avon. The only one i have ever seen

 

[Chris Guy]

My local river the Colne in West London had a massive population of water voles when I was growing up in the 60's and 70's.The release of Mink from farms devastated the population and they became extinct. This season on one stretch I manage we have started to see a few return. Its like being back in time and a big thumbs up to what we are doing on our river habitat . Do you see any water voles on the rivers you fish or are they as rare as reported.

Are there otters present?

 

[Mark Swaby]

No resident Otters but we do get them moving through, they tend not to settle because its a country park with lots of dog walkers and dogs let off the lead. At the moment no fin damage on any fish caught either. A large dog Otter was run over back in October on the road to our stretch

 

[Neil Blood]

I did read somewhere that UK Mink numbers had suffered in recent years, due to an outbreak of Aleutian Mink Disease Virus?

Also re Otters pushing Mink out, the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, carried out some research on their reserves and discovered that Mink and Otters were coexisting, with the Otters not impacting Mink numbers. If a Mink encounters an Otter, it will likely make a sharp exit, just as a Weasel would if it encountered a Stoat (Weasels and Stoats have coexisted for thousands of years).

The only effective way to deal with Mink and save Water Voles, is to trap the Mink and kill them; however this takes a significant effort and along a whole water course.

 

[Neil Smart]

The story we are told is that Otters are too big to raid the Voles 'nest' whereas the Mink can.
Not so sure about that one, but great PR for Mr O.

 

[Joe Winstanley]

I did read somewhere that UK Mink numbers had suffered in recent years, due to an outbreak of Aleutian Mink Disease Virus?

Also re Otters pushing Mink out, the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, carried out some research on their reserves and discovered that Mink and Otters were coexisting, with the Otters not impacting Mink numbers. If a Mink encounters an Otter, it will likely make a sharp exit, just as a Weasel would if it encountered a Stoat (Weasels and Stoats have coexisted for thousands of years).

The only effective way to deal with Mink and save Water Voles, is to trap the Mink and kill them; however this takes a significant effort and along a whole water course.

I know some people thought Aleutian Disease was having an impact on mink over 15 years ago, but I haven't heard much about it since then, more's the pity. There's certainly seems to be none of it about on the stretches of the Dane (above HC) I've been frequenting the last few years...mink everywhere and often bold as brass.

I did read a study that found that when otters and mink were found in the same territories, it had the effect of forcing mink to become less nocturnal in a bid to avoid the otters which is turn had an impact on their hunting. That might explain why I'm seeing them more during the day, but then again i'm not really seeing that many more signs of otters than I used to.

Your right about the trapping, it is time consuming and, a bit like himalayan balsam control, you need a wider approach for it to really be effective long-term.

 

[Joe Winstanley]

The story we are told is that Otters are too big to raid the Voles 'nest' whereas the Mink can.
Not so sure about that one, but great PR for Mr O.

I've spent a good few hundred hours surveying watercourses for water voles Neil, in that time I've not seen any 'burrows' that would be big enough for an otter to access. Even a mature male mink is too big. And there are plenty of people with a whole lot more knowledge on the subject than me that hold the same view.

 

[Graham Shaw]

I definitely see a lot less of them across Cheshire now then I did 10-15 years ago. A perfect storm of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and mink predation has hammered them.

https://www.researchgate.net/public...nt_with_recovery_of_native_otters_Lutra_lutra

Really interesting article - thanks for the link.

Otters & voles & fish have been in balance on our rivers since the last Ice Age (give or take a few recent generations). it's great to see a nasty invasive species like the American mink having a bit of a (temporary?) setback.

 

[Chris Guy]

On the Ouse and Ivel, I used to see mink frequently, 20 years ago. Since the reintroduction of otters I haven't seen a mink for 10 years, but I also haven't seen a barbel in 7 years.