Lake District welcomes reintroduction of water voles

This is the moment water voles were reintroduced to the Lake District.

Conservationists are releasing about 350 of the small mammals at Haweswater and the Lowther estate.

The water voles have been bred in captivity and are close to the genetic make-up of the voles that would once have been widespread in Cumbria.

They are listed as endangered having gone from an estimated population of about eight million to 132,000 over the last century and they have disappeared from 94% of the sites where they once lived, the Eden Rivers Trust said.

Volunteers have worked over the last year to prepare the sites for the voles, planting wildflowers and building mink rafts ready for the new arrivals.

Most have been let go under a so-called soft release, meaning they are kept in a cage at the site for two days before being let out on the third when they are acclimatised to their new surroundings.

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