by The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Water Vole Conservation.

The Isle of Wight is now the only county in England where the water vole can be studied in its natural situation without feral mink. The Wildlife Trust, with generous funding from Environment Agency and help from local landowners, has undertaken three surveys in 1996, 2003 and most recently in 2008, to discover more about this charismatic mammal.

The same 51 stretches of Island rivers and waterways are surveyed in the summer. Between 2003 and 2008 water voles continued to be active in 34 sites with a further 10 sites increasing in activity and 7 decreasing.

Water voles continue to be happy in our main rivers and increasing in places such as Nettlestone. However since 2003 they have not been seen around the Newtown area.

The Wildlife Trust has launched an appeal to help save the water vole from future declines. Any contribution would be welcomed to further this work. Please contact Richard Grogan at the Wildlife Trust on (01983) 533180 or richardg@hwt.org.uk for more information.

The Island is blessed with a rich bat fauna owing to our favourable climate, position, and a relatively intact, well-connected landscape.

For many years the Isle of Wight Bat Hospital has been rescuing a wide range of bats that get into difficulties. Many householders have also been monitoring bats living in their roof spaces.

However, one group of bats, largely restricted to woodlands is more difficult to study. In 2005, just six breeding populations of the very rare Bechstein’s bat and nine of the Barbastelle were known in the UK. We knew they existed on the Island but little was known about them.

Between 2003 and 2007, Ian Davidson Watts, a highly experienced, licensed bat worker surveyed 42 woods across the Island capturing (then releasing) 219 bats of twelve different species.

21 maternity roosts of Bechstein’s bats and six maternity roosts of Barbastelle bats were located in trees and the Bechstein’s bat was found in 67% of the woods surveyed!

The Island is internationally significant for rare woodland bats with the highest number of breeding colonies of Bechstein’s bat in the UK. Sensitive management of our woodlands and protection of old trees is important to keep our special woodland bats.

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