Monitoring Wetland Mammals: An Ecological Case Study

The water vole in Britain has undergone a widespread and dramatic decline and the future of this once familiar waterside creature now hangs in the balance. Here we present a method of monitoring water vole activity in a non-linear wetland habitat, using a vegetation-based sampling approach. Water voles show intra-sexual preferences for distinct plant patches, with breeding females commonly associated with twice the number of plant patches than males, particularly soft rush (Juncus effusus). Mean population densities and observed range lengths are also presented. This information adds important fine-scale detail that will enable the construction of more robust population models. These may be used to predict water vole distribution and movement patterns within wetland habitat patches and implemented as a monitoring tool for conservation.