Water voles thriving on Leeds & Liverpool Canal

Urban water voles
November 2009. Lancashire Wildlife Trust has discovered healthy populations of endangered water voles on some stretches of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. This shy creature is actually widespread there because the canal still has brickwork banks in many places and water voles are able to burrow between the bricks.

A public survey of the UK's canals, organised by British Waterways during 2009, revealed that these waterways provide important habitat for many species, including water voles. The Lancashire Wildlife Trust surveys carried out in 2008 and 2009 as part of The Northwest Lowlands Water Vole Project, show that the Leeds & Liverpool Canal is no exception. Water voles are thriving on the stretch between the heart of Bootle in Merseyside and Parbold in Lancashire, proving that they are well equipped for both urban and rural life.

Dr Mark Robinson, British Waterways' national ecology manager, says: "Canals and rivers are ideal wildlife corridors that support a vast array of wildlife, including bats, newts and otters. Whether you are in the middle of a city, or somewhere more remote, you are almost guaranteed to see some wildlife on the waterway."

To illiustrate, a water vole was spotted during the Lancashire Wildlife Trust surveys on an old fence panel floating in the canal at Litherland.

Dr Helen Laycock, Northwest Lowlands Water Vole Project Officer, said: "We spend all our time looking for the clues they leave behind, like their droppings and burrows, so it was a real treat to actually watch a water vole only a few metres away. It was feeding quite happily and then swam off with a lily leaf in its mouth."

Drastic decline on 20th Century
The water vole suffered dramatic population declines in Britain during the 20th Century, due to habitat loss through agricultural intensification and urbanisation of the floodplain, along with predation by the introduced American mink. As a result, it is the subject of a national Biodiversity Action Plan and, since April 2008, receives full protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) as amended.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust survey of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was funded by SITA Trust Enriching Nature and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, by kind permission of British Waterways.