Threatened Water Voles Take Tube Journey to New Home

Empty tubes of Pringles crisps got a new lease of life yesterday as they were used to introduce dozens of endangered water voles into a nature reserve.

Seventy of the rat-like creatures were taken from a breeding centre in Devon and brought to carefully cultivated wetland in Hempsted, Gloucester, where it is hoped they will breed.

The project, funded by Severn Trent Water, involved many of the creatures crawling down the tubes and into three ponds on the site. Others are acclimatising in cages over several days.

The water vole population has dropped by 90 per cent in recent years because of loss of their habitat and hunting by mink.

Jane Willmott, project manager, said: “We have been encouraging them into the Pringles tubes and releasing them into the water.

“Others are being given a ‘soft release’, where they are put into a cage first, and left in the field to find their way out at their own pace.

“It has been said water voles are more endangered than the Black Rhino in Africa.”

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