Over the earlier part of this year our maintenance team were doing some essential work on our water vole island display, trying to rectify the many leaks it had developed over the years. While this work was being carried our we moved a small group of water voles into our grass snake enclosure for people still to see (having taken the rarely seen grass snakes out first).
They were a nice little display in there, but long term it was never suitable, our main island display is nearly four times the size, and so as soon as it was ready we moved them back to their home! For those who have never visited, or can't remember, our water vole display is a large raised enclosure so that photographers can get eye level with them when on the land and almost eye level when in the water. It has a large island, surrounded by water, with two smaller feeding platform islands for them to get to to feed... Having said that, most of the food they take will be naturally on the island and we just supplement with rabbit food, fruit and veg.
This display has worked well for us in the past, and the voles seem to enjoy it. Over the last few weeks they have been back they have been very active, chasing each other over the island, jumping in and out of the water, and swimming around the moat.
Here are a few photos from the last couple of weeks.
