New home for rare animal

ONE of Britain's most threatened mammals has made an unlikely area of South Yorkshire its new home.

Part of Little Houghton Marsh, near Darfield, Barnsley, has been transformed into a wetland reserve for water voles after ecologists from the Environment Agency found them living there in 2009.

Andrew Virtue, Environment Agency biodiversity officer, said: "When we visited the site in 2009 we noted that the present ditch system was very shallow and prone to drying up.

"The water vole population at Little Houghton is isolated from other sites and we wanted to create a permanent home for the voles by extending and deepening the ditches."

Work on the site started in March this year and included creating a new ditch system that stretches for more than 220 metres in the middle of the washland.

Since the development the vole population has grown and other creatures such as grass snakes and rare birds have also prospered.

Mr Virtue added: "Although it is quite difficult to spot these little creatures, there are now clear signs of increased use by water vole, including fresh burrows and lots of water vole droppings along the banks of the new ditches. We are surprised how quickly they have been colonised - the voles are clearly happy."

"We will be visiting the site over the coming months to get more accurate numbers of exactly how many there are.

The project is part of the Dearne Valley Green Heart , a partnership between the Environment Agency, Natural England and RSPB.