Once a common sight in our rivers, water voles have vanished from the Lake District. In a bid to re-establish this small, yet vital part of the ecosystem, environmental organisations and landowners have joined forces to create the habitat conditions needed to bring back this much-loved creature to Cumbria.
Their hard work has been rewarded as the last of 365 water voles were released into their new homes.
Nationally, water voles are Britain’s fastest declining mammal. Over the last century they’ve gone from an estimated population of eight million to around 132,000. In that time, they have disappeared from 94% of sites where they once lived, including the Lake District.