Priority areas for conservation
Water Vole portrait
Terry Whittaker
In view of the patchy nature of our knowledge concerning the present distribution and abundance of water voles in Scotland, it would be inappropriate to specify a definitive, inflexible list of Priority Areas where resources aimed at conserving water voles should be focussed. Systematic survey information exists for only a relatively small area of the country and consequently the only information on the status of this species comes from isolated casual records or limited local surveys. That said, there are perhaps five or six areas where sufficient work has been to undertaken to clearly demonstrate that a viable and probably nationally important water vole metapopulation is present. The following areas are therefore proposed as the first tranche of Priority Areas
- The Cairngorms. The headwaters of several major river catchments radiate from main Cairngorm Massif and many of these hold good populations of water voles, notably the upper tributaries of the rivers Dee and Feshie.
- West Sutherland. The burns in the Assynt area, in particular, support good populations of water voles and it is likely that much of the surrounding area including the mountainous areas to the south also support important populations.
- Lowland Aberdeenshire. Good populations survive in the intensively-farmed River Ythan catchment and possibly elsewhere in the North East.
- Greater Glasgow. There are several surviving water vole colonies in the Glasgow Conurbation, which collectively may represent the most important water vole metapopulation in the Central Belt.
- The Sound of Jura Islands. The tiny islands of Garbh Reisa, Eilean na Cille, Coiresa, Reisa an-Struith and Reisa MhicPhaidean lying between the Island of Jura and the mainland at Crinan, support the best known populations of the fossorial form of the water vole in Britain.
- Caithness and East Sutherland. Good populations survive in the eastern part of Caithness & Sutherland peatlands and in some of the burns in the more fertile areas of Caithness.
It is stressed that the above list is provisional and future surveys will quite probably reveal other areas of the country supporting populations of comparable or even greater significance.