Rare water voles return to River Thame after decades

Rare water voles, celebrated in Wind In The Willows, have been spotted the River Thame catchment area for the first time in decades.

For the first time in decades, water voles have been confirmed living in the River Thame catchment, offering a hopeful boost for one of Britain’s fastest-declining mammals.

Known to generations of readers as Ratty in The Wind in the Willows – written by Henley resident Kenneth Grahame – the real-life return of this much-loved riverside character feels especially poignant locally.

Volunteer monitors from the River Thame Conservation Trust captured video evidence of water voles at two sites – on the River Thame near Chearsley and Chalgrove Brook in Stadhampton– using motion-sensor wildlife cameras, earning a mention on Radio 4’s Today programme.

The discovery marks a milestone in the charity’s long-running monitoring across the catchment.

“It’s a fantastic affirmation of hard work by all the volunteers and landowners,” says Hilary Phillips of the trust. “These findings remind us how vital it is to protect and improve river and floodplain habitats, so we don’t lose any more precious wildlife.”

One of the first clips showed a heron catching water voles, dramatic footage that, while difficult to watch, confirmed their previously undetected presence. Soon after, further video revealed a water vole swimming past a mink monitoring raft, clear evidence that at least one animal is actively using the river system.

Water voles were once common along British waterways but have declined by more than 90% since the 1990s, largely due to habitat loss and predation by invasive American mink.

Since 2023, the trust has been working with BBOWT as part of a landscape-scale mink control programme, funded through Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme.

Conservation experts say the sharp drop in mink detection is encouraging and may be giving water voles the breathing space they need to recover.

The rediscovery signals renewed hope that these charismatic mammals could once again become a familiar sight.

Find out more at riverthame.org.

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