If you're sitting comfortably, then we'll begin.....

As he sat on the grass and looked across the river, a dark hole in the bank opposite, just above the water's edge, caught his eye, and dreamily he fell to considering what a nice snug dwelling-place it would make for an animal with few wants and fond of a bijou riverside residence, above flood level and remote from noise and dust. As he grazed, something bright and small seemed to twinkle down in the heart of it, vanished, then twinkled once more like a tiny star. But it could hardly be a star in such an unlikely situation; and it was too glittering and small for a glow-worm. Then, as he looked, it winked at him, and so declared itself to be an eye; and a small face began gradually to grow up round it, like a frame round a picture.

A brown little face, with whiskers.

A grave round face, with the same twinkle in its eye that had first attracted his notice.

Small neat ears and thick silky hair.

It was the Water Rat!

Then the two animals stood and regarded each other cautiously.

"Hullo, Mole!" said the Water Rat.

"Hullo, Rat!" said the Mole.

(Extract from "Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame - published 1908)

As children, this is most likely how we were introduced to Ratty, or to give him his Sunday name, The Water Vole (Arvicola terrestris). However, sadly, unlike Mole, we are highly unlikely to stumble across him on a riverbank jaunt, unless we're extremely fortunate. Water Vole numbers have crashed devistatingly, and so Ratty is a very rare little chap indeed. In fact, according to The Vincent Wildlife Trust who carried out the official surveys for Water Voles in 1989-1990, and again from 1996-1998¹, found that the population had plummeted by a staggering 88% in the UK in just seven years. In Yorkshire alone, there was a loss of as much as 97%. The reasons for this decline will be discussed once Ratty has been properly introduced.

So...let's start at the beginning: Ratty; a rat or not?

Ratty isn't actually an accurate description of the Water Vole. Even though they come from the same family, rodents, and he is roughly rat-sized², there are tell-tale differences if you're ever lucky enough to see one.

• Firstly, he's got a cute, blunt nose and has barely visible ears, and the rat's nose is pointy and he has prominent ears.


• Still long, but a somewhat shorter, hairy tail is another dead-give-away of the Water Vole, whereas nearly everyone shudders at the sight of a rat's really long, naked tail.


• Ratty's fur has a lovely reddish tinge³ to it rather than the plain, mousey-brown of the Brown Rat  (Rattus rattus), hence its name.


• Finally, Mole probably would have heard Ratty make a distinct "plop" sound as he dived into the water for a swim.

There we have it, indisputable evidence that Ratty is definitely not a rat, but a vole. However, Voley hasn't quite got the same ring to it as Ratty, so for the purposes of this article, we'll stick to Ratty.

Now, how about Ratty's bijou riverside residence?

Kenneth Grahame describes Ratty's residence rather well, in that the entrance is through a small dark hole⁴ in a lushly vegetated riverbank, just above the water's edge (typically around two metres from the edge). However, Ratty does have secret under-water entrances to his burrow just in case he needs to escape quickly from predators⁵. In actual fact, Ratty has an extensive burrow system with many bijou residences and entrances which are all linked by runs. These burrows include snug, grass-lined nesting chambers which are generally found higher up in the bank. Around the entrances themselves, he keeps a closely cropped lawn, which might make you think that he's a tidy little fellow. However, Ratty tends to leave his neatly cropped food items, such as rushes and sedges, lying around the entrances. It has been discovered that he likes a wide variety of plants to eat, an amazing 227 different species. Variety being the spice of life. His droppings⁶ can also be found near burrow entrances, and while we may find this unpleasant to say the least, it serves the purpose of letting other voles know that this residence belongs to Ratty.

A life on the river

Ratty has been known to make his home not just along the banks of rivers, but also along the edges of ditches, dykes, lochs/lakes, and in marshy areas throughout the UK, although sadly, he is absent from Ireland. He has been spotted in northern parts of Scotland, but due to the nature of the terrain, it proves extremely difficult to survey successfully. With safety being an issue for surveyors, less is known of the true population in the Highlands.

Ratty's territory stretches up to 130 metres, and a female's approximately 70 metres along the watercourse. His home range is marked by piles of droppings (latrines) which are deposited in prominent places along the bankside and on flat stones in the channel itself, as well as near burrow entrances as already mentioned. This occurs more during the spring/summer breeding season, as very few of Ratty's relatives make it through the winter. Voles are short-lived little creatures, which rarely survive more than a year⁷, although a very lucky few make it past two winters. The good news is that they can have up to three or four litters of five young per litter in a season.

The young grow quickly, and are fully weaned by the time they are just fourteen days old, unlike the fourteen weeks it takes for the Eurasian Otter to be weaned.