Will Ratty return to London’s rivers?
Wednesday, 15th November, 7.45pm online
Sam Facey, Estuaries and Wetlands Project Officer, Zoological Society of London (ZSL)

Can Ratty’s prospects be raised by London’s Water Vole Recovery Programme?

Water voles – loved by millions as Ratty in The Wind in the Willows stories and now featuring on a new set of Royal mail stamps – have been in decline for decades due to losing their habitats and predation by escaped mink.

The 2023 UK State of Nature report finds that nearly one in six wild species are at risk of being lost from Great Britain. https://stateofnature.org.uk/

That decline includes water voles. Page 14 of the report says, “some species like Water Vole and Hazel Dormouse have declined dramatically”.

There are some successes such as water voles reviving at Rainham Marshes in east London where the habitats has been saved from decades of development threats, neglect and deliberate harm.

We’ll find out how ZSL’s programme could see those successes scale up.

Book now by emailing qwag@qwag.org.uk