My thanks to Ruth Street for this charming guest blog.
I have always been fascinated by water and wetland wildlife. I have been known to end up wet, on more than one occasion, from being too eager in my investigations! One day I was walking beside a stream and noticed a plant stem that had been cut at a 45 degree angle. It looked as though someone had measured the angle to cut it off. Intrigued, I looked for signs as to how this had happened.
I noticed holes in the sides of the muddy banks of the stream and also one in the top of the bank. Around the top hole, it looked as though it had been cut with a lawn mower. There were also tunnels in the vegetation alongside the stream and further along I found a pile of pieces of vegetation about 10 cm long that also had the characteristic angled ends. There was more evidence of angled cut stems in the middle of the stream.
Something was clearly enjoying the huge variety of wetland plants growing in and alongside the stream. Then I saw it! On the opposite bank, busily chewing plant stems, was a water vole. This rare and elusive mammal, with iron hardened orange front teeth, was making short work of the plant banquet on offer.
I first developed an interest in water voles over ten years ago but I had never thought about why they cut the stems at 45 degrees until recently.
I noticed that they hold them, one hand above the other, with the long end of the stem trailing out to the side. Biting the stem whilst holding it in this way would account for that characteristic angled tip. Another mystery satisfyingly solved!
Learn more about Ruth Street’s work here: http://www.street-country.com