Water voles prosper as mink are culled

The aim is to create a 'firewall' to protect the county from mink

Ever since American mink were introduced to our shores, water voles have struggled to survive.

Although in the natural balance water voles are supposed to be eaten, they are meant to be eaten by animals such as foxes, badgers, stoats, weasels and even fish like pike.

They wouldn't have survived this long if they didn't have some form of defence against their predators so if a pike or fox comes along then it can dive into its burrows, while if a weasel attacks, then they can dive into the water and out swim it.

The problem with mink is that the water voles have no defence against them. Mink can out swim them and are nimble enough to be able to get into their burrows.

The loss of habitat due to urban expansion is another reason for their decline.

But now a scheme run by a collection of organisations has brought the water voles back from the brink of extinction and put minks in danger.

Mink are killed 'humanely'

The scheme involves culling the mink by laying traps for them throughout the county's nature reserves and wider countryside. The aim is to create a "firewall" from Clevedon right down to the Devon and Dorset borders which would protect the county from them.

John McCalley, reserve warden at Shapwick Heath Nature Reserve, said they have been setting the traps twice a year.

He said the mink are caught in humane traps and no bait is used as they are naturally inquisitive. They are then killed and disposed of and are not used for any other purpose.

Since 2004, a total of around 420 mink have been killed. As about 150 volunteers from three local wildfowling clubs, shooting syndicates, fishery owners, BASC members and other conservation groups check the traps, the scheme costs the tax payer nothing.

The project has proved to be successful; Robin said he believes some areas in the county are now mink free.

The scheme has also had an unexpected result as they are now putting other projects at risk. The Environment Agency has seen them pop up where they are trying to build flood defences so the project has to be put on hold until they've been moved.

So why are efforts being made to bring one species back from extinction thus sending another into the abyss?

The project is on Shapwick Heath

Robin Marshall-Ball from the British Association for Shooting and Conservation has been working with the Environment Agency, Natural England and Somerset Wildlife Trust on this project.

He said they joined in as there were fears that if otters force mink inland, then pheasants and partridges would be at risk.

"If we had mother nature taking its course, then a balance would be achieved but the problem is for the last thousand or more years, we've been interfering with nature so fiercely that it's now not natural anymore, the whole countryside isn't natural.

"If it was, we'd have bears, mink, wolves all over the place. So we've been managing the countryside and altering the balance for an awful long time," he said.

"The nature of species is animals live together and then an interloper comes in and the native species don't have time to adapt to it then the whole balance is turned on its head.

"Therefore as humans we've interfered all the time so we have to continue interfering to manage what we've got left."

He said the mink cannot be moved on to another area as that would just be transferring the problem.

"We introduced them in the first place so it's up to us to sort the problem out," he said.

"I don't think we'll ever eradicate them as they're such resourceful and fearless animals but if we can control them so that it gives other animals some breathing space and a breeding space, then we'll have achieved what we want to achieve."