Water Vole Field Signs and Habitat Assessment

Mike Dean has worked as an ecological consultant since 1997, with roles in varying size consultancies from the very small (one or two staff members) to the very large multi-disciplinary consultancy, and a few in between. He’s undertaken ecological surveys and produced ecological reports of all different types and sizes. In 2013 he joined the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management’s (CIEEM) Professional Standards Committee, tasked with producing guidelines on, amongst other things, ecological report writing. He’s been delivering training on report writing for CIEEM since 2015.

Acknowledgements



1. Introduction

A bit of background 

Personal experience

Legal protection in the UK 

Competence 



2. Habitat 

Where do you find water voles? 

What does ‘ideal’ habitat for water voles look like? 

Habitat requirements 

Dry areas for burrows or above-ground nests 

Herbaceous vegetation as food and cover 

Water 

How to assess likely value of habitat 

Water voles in terrestrial habitat 



3. What does a water vole look like? 



4. Looking for field signs

Different field signs 

When to search 

Where to search 

How to search 

Other factors to consider 

Health, safety and biosecurity 



5. Droppings and latrines 

Characteristics of water vole droppings 

Latrines 

How many droppings constitute a latrine? 

What can latrines tell us? 

Terrestrial, or fossorial, water voles

Rat droppings 

Field vole and bank vole droppings 

DNA analysis 



6. Feeding remains 



7. Burrows 

Characteristics of ‘active’ water vole burrows 

Burrows of similar species 

Detailed examination of burrows 



8. Nests 



9. Other field signs 

Footprints 

Runs through the vegetation



10. Other species 

Droppings 

Footprints 



11. Recording the information 

What information needs to be recorded? 

How to record the information 

What happens next? 



Bibliography 

Index