Cornwall Water Vole Reintroduction

***30th March - UPDATE***

We're now at 75% of our total funding! Thanks to your help, we were able to obtain the Cornwall Council's Grow Nature Fund, which pledged £5000! To unlock our funding and ensure our project is a success, we now only need £3050 left! Can you, your family, friends, or business help us to restore water voles in southern Cornwall? By donating, you can unlock major benefits for yourself and/or your business; check out the benefits on our website (linked below) and on the right hand side!

***17th March - UPDATE***

We're now at over 85% of our initial target of £3125 (25% of overall)!  

Once we reach this the match funding pledges from Cornwall Council with be released!

So just £468 more will take us to this threshold!!

Thanks for your continued support!

***15th March - UPDATE***

We were interviewed on BBC Radio Cornwall yesterday about the project.  If you missed it you can listen to us here from around 1:47:00 onwards:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bqbmf4

Subsequently BBC News followed up with an article on their main website.  You can read it here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-60740346

***13th March - UPDATE***

Having passed £2000 we are nearly 70% of the way to reaching our initial goal of £3125 (25% of the overall target).  

Once we reach this amount we will qualify for up to £10,000 extra funding through the Cornwall Council Grow Nature Fund and the Cornwall Council Social Inclusion Fund!

Therefore in effect each £1 pledged from on now could release an additional £10 in extra funding once we get to 25% of our overall target!

Please help if you can, by donating or sharing!

Thank you for your support!

Once common in Cornwall, water voles were considered to have become locally extinct in the late 1990s due to predation from invasive American mink and habitat fragmentation. More recently, water voles were reintroduced into the Bude Marshes area, and although the population is thought to be doing well, it will take a long time for them to spread and naturally recolonise their previous range. Through our reintroduction project, we aim to significantly speed up this process, restoring populations across the county.  

About us

Kernow Conservation was founded in 2019 with the aim to connect, protect, and restore wild habitats and species in Cornwall.  We are an ambitious & growing group that works in partnership with local landowners, businesses, and volunteers to deliver habitat restoration and management, species reintroductions, and biodiversity monitoring projects that provide real benefit for both the wildlife and communities of Cornwall. One of our key aims is to restore endangered water voles across their previous range within the county.

What are water voles and why are they important?

Water voles are often referred to as ‘Water Rats’ due to their similar appearance to rats — “Ratty” from 'Wind in the Willows' was actually a water vole. They are ecologically important and are sometimes considered a keystone species; not only are water voles important food sources for larger animals, but they also create a range of habitats for other wildlife species through their burrowing and grazing activities in wetland edge environments. 

In Britain, water voles have been recorded to eat 227 different plant species, including grasses, common reeds, sedges, and rushes, as well as roots, tree bark, and fruit during summer months — they consume up to 80% of their body weight daily! This grazing behaviour alters the vegetation composition & structure in the areas they inhabit, promoting a greater diversity of plant species, as well as drying out soil, which promotes microbial activity and regulates nitrogen availability. 

As a prey base, a fully grown water vole can reach 330g (up to 10 times more than a bank vole or field vole), providing an excellent food source for many other species, including birds such as kestrels, grey herons, little egrets, and barn owls, and mammals such as stoats, otters, weasels, and polecats. Unfortunately, they also make easy prey for invasive American mink, which are the only species able to enter and hunt them in their burrow systems, leading to the need for constant American mink monitoring.  

Due to their popularity as a food item for other species, water voles need to reproduce quickly, and females have an average of two to three litters annually, each containing between two and eight pups.  Their breeding season is also long, lasting between March and September, and the pups leave their mother at around 28 days old to find their own territories.

What will the money be used for?

Our first release is planned for August 2022 at a private site near to Stithians. The funds raised here will be used towards project management costs for the following:

• To coordinate and supervise volunteer days to improve the existing habitat at the release site by removing old gorse and willow from the edges of ponds.
• To create new ponds at the release site to increase the habitat for water voles.
• To organise and host educational talks and visits at the release site.
• To monitor the release site for American mink.
• To work with local landowners to monitor for American mink in the area surrounding the release site.
• To monitor the water vole population after the initial release.
• To research and identify additional potential sites in the local area suitable for water voles.
• To undertake professional ecological surveys to assess the suitability and management needs of these sites.
• To further research, identify, and assess additional potential sites and areas suitable for water voles more widely across Cornwall.
• To provide regular updates across our social media platforms and on our website.

We have some great rewards!

Whether you are an individual, family, or business, we can offer you some great rewards — check them out on the right before donating!

We thank you for your continued support!

Full details of Wild Kernow business membership benefits at: https://www.kernowconservation.org/wild-kernow-business-memberships

Full details of Wild Kernow individual and family membership benefits at: https://www.kernowconservation.org/wild-kernow-individual-family-memberships