The Vale of the Vole shrinks

The water vole (Arvicola terrestris), whose populations are on the decline throughout Britain, is now thought to be extinct in Devon and Cornwall. According to this article from The Independent, the culprit is thought to be the American mink (Mustela vison), whose wild populations began to expand in the late 1950s, several decades after they first began escaping from fur farms. While the mink do prey on water voles, the voles are also threatened by humans that mistake them for rats.