BNPS_WaterReturn_06.jpg
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Pic: ZacharyCulpin/BNPS
Pictured: The endangered water voles take their first steps back to the New Forest
Endangered water voles are ready to recolonise the streams and rivers of the New Forest 24 years after animal activists inadvertently wiped them out by releasing 7,000 mink from a fur farm.
In 1998 members of the Animal Liberation Front raided the farm in Ringwood, Hants, and slashed open cages to let out the voracious predators.
At the time ecologists slammed the act, saying the marauding mammals would endanger local wildlife which could take years to recover.
About 2,000 of the escaped American mink were shot or run over by local farmers and landowners or caught in traps.
Among the native species targeted by the carnivorous creatures was the local population of water voles, the small aquatic rodents immortalised in Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Wilows.
Pic: ZacharyCulpin/BNPS
Pictured: The endangered water voles take their first steps back to the New Forest
Endangered water voles are ready to recolonise the streams and rivers of the New Forest 24 years after animal activists inadvertently wiped them out by releasing 7,000 mink from a fur farm.
In 1998 members of the Animal Liberation Front raided the farm in Ringwood, Hants, and slashed open cages to let out the voracious predators.
At the time ecologists slammed the act, saying the marauding mammals would endanger local wildlife which could take years to recover.
About 2,000 of the escaped American mink were shot or run over by local farmers and landowners or caught in traps.
Among the native species targeted by the carnivorous creatures was the local population of water voles, the small aquatic rodents immortalised in Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Wilows.
ZacharyCulpin/BNPS 5 Sep 2021 5568x3712 / 5.8MB