Water voles released into national park

Seventy-five water voles have been released into the Ennerdale Valley

Water voles have been released into a valley in a national park in the hope of rebuilding the population.

Around 75 were released in the Ennerdale Valley in the Lake District on Tuesday by Forestry England and West Cumbria Rivers Trust after three years of preparation.

The animals are on the red endangered list of British mammals.

Currently living in temporary enclosures to acclimatise, the barriers will be fully removed after the bank holiday weekend.

Water voles were once widespread across UK waterways but have suffered a dramatic population decline since the 1970s due to habitat loss and predation by the American mink, which were brought to the UK for their fur.

A key part of the project is to keep the Ennerdale Valley free from the predator and a network of traps were established ahead of their release.

The water voles will live in enclosures until after the bank holiday weekend

Water voles open up spaces for greater diversity as they graze and burrow, Forestry England said.

They also form part of the wider food chain and are eaten by other species like foxes, otters, stoats, weasels, herons and birds of prey.

Hayley Dauben, species introduction project officer at Forestry England, said they were "confident" the area was an "excellent habitat" for the creatures, "providing a good food supply and higher chance of evading predators".

"Our monitoring shows no permanent mink population in the area, though mink do occasionally visit from elsewhere," she said, adding the traps have been working successfully along the River Ehen.

Water voles are on the red endangered list of British mammals