Meet the Water Vole

Derek Gow has helped bring beavers back to Britain, and their impact on local landscapes and biodiversity has been immense. Now, he’s scaling up a breeding program to export another wetland engineer: the water vole.

These small rodents are masters of burrowing along the banks of rivers, adding homes that help other animals like reptiles and amphibians survive in wetlands. Derek breeds the endangered voles in captivity before releasing them into the wild — his efforts contribute up to 2,000 new voles each year into recovering natural systems.