Water voles are almost extinct - could glitter save them?
Endangered water voles in Wales are being fed edible glitter in a bid to save them from extinction.
Once commonly found across south Wales, water voles are now effectively extinct in all but a few locations, according to the Wildlife Trust.
With their future hanging in the balance, conservationists have been looking for new ways to track the naturally shy individuals in the wild - which is where the glitter comes in.
Nature Conservation Cymru hopes that by offering the animals something sparkly to eat, the sparkle should come out the other end - providing some much-needed answers.
Video shows 'very chill' wild beaver after 400-year absence
Hopes for water voles as new colonies discovered
Rob Parry, chief executive of Nature Conservation Cymru, said his team had consulted with vets to ensure the edible and biodegradable glitter - the type used to decorate cakes - would not be harmful to the semi-aquatic creatures.
"It's something that we've done in nature conservation before for other species, for badgers in particular where we use pellets to put in with peanuts, which badgers love," said Mr Parry.
"So we've taken that idea and scaled it down to water vole size, which means using glitter."
The hope is that if the water voles are willing to consume the glitter then it will come out in their poo, allowing the small mammals - which are often mistaken for brown rats - to be tracked by conservationists.
Different colours of glitter could be used to allow conservationists to track different families of water voles and how far they range.
It might sound like a fun idea, but Mr Parry and his team could not be more serious.
If they can track where water voles are located in the wild, they can make adjustments to the environment - like removing invasive conifers from wetland habitats or fencing off certain riverbanks to stop sheep grazing.
Measures like this could help the species to disperse through the landscape undisturbed and potentially be a life-saving intervention.
"We'll be able to see the types of territory, the size and where they go in," said Mr Parry.
"Are they just using the linear features, the ditches, or are they spreading out into the bog and the molinia grassland habitat?
"That will be really crucial for when it comes to planning for our upland habitats."
The team is first testing out their theory on some captive-bred water voles which are part of a wider Natural Resources Wales (NRW) project to reintroduce colonies into the wild.
The glitter is spread onto chunks of apple, not part of their normal diet in the wild, but a food the animals love and do well on in captivity, according to Richard Davies from NRW.
"They get everything they need from apples, carrots, and some dried rabbit food as well," he said.
He has successfully bred hundreds of water voles which have been reintroduced into the wild, though he said their release was no guarantee of survival.
"Most predators in the UK would quite happily take a water vole. They need to be able to cope with this heavy predation and replace themselves a lot," he said.
With a BBC News camera present, the glittery purple apple was placed on top of the straw bedding which covered the water voles' pen.
After 20 minutes, the food remained untouched, but an hour later most of it had disappeared.
The success of the project, however, does not just depend on the appetite of the water voles, but how well the glitter can retain its shine from end to end.
Mr Parry said without interventions like this, the future for water voles was uncertain.
"It's been a perfect storm of bad things that's happened to water voles in the last few decades," he said.
"We have drained an awful lot of their wetland habitat, forced them into linear ditches where we find them now, and then the biggest problem is the American mink, an invasive species that was let out and released from pens and they just turned out to be the perfect water vole predators. The water voles don't stand a chance, really."
But now, at least, he is more hopeful.
The water voles, known for being nervous about any changes to to their environment, had not rejected the glitter.
So, did the experiment work?
Just 24 hours later, a tiny glittery poo was spotted.
The conservation team was elated.
Wild beaver swims in Welsh river in 'phenomenal' moment
Two octopuses found walking on Welsh beach
Mouse filmed tidying up man's shed every night
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
I found a bacteria-eating virus in my loo - could it save your life?
I'm on the hunt for a microbial saviour – a type of virus that can treat infections rather than cause them. We all know the viral bad guys – Covid, flu, norovirus, herpes, chicken pox, measles… the list goes on. But there's a type of virus that's not interested in infiltrating our bodies, instead it preys on bacteria. They're known as bacteria eaters, or bacteriophage, or commonly as phage. Capturing them could give us new ways of treating infections, including superbugs that are becoming incurable. So, how to catch a killer? I've been promised it's surprisingly easy. The team at the Phage Collection Project sent me some vials to collect samples, along with a pair of gloves. All I need to do is hunt for some dirty water, the dirtier the better, dip the vials in and screw on the lid. I tried a couple of ponds, the juice from a worm-composting bin and then I needed my dirtiest sample. I didn't flush the toilet after a poo and left it for a couple of hours. I pop on a glove and hold my breath as I go in for the final sample. Strict hygiene instructions, including vigorous hand-washing, were followed, at all times. The vials were packaged up for collection and then three days later I headed off to the University of Southampton to see what was inside. "They were a bit dirty when I received them," phage scientist Michelle Lin tells me as we don our blue lab-coats and matching gloves to go into the Containment Level 2 microbiology laboratory. We grab my samples from the fridge, which look much clearer now they have been filtered of any… debris. "It's fine, it's needed," Michelle, who had the unpleasant job, reassures me. Filtering is the first step in looking for phage, next they get served dinner – a cocktail of yummy bacteria - to help them grow in number. Now comes the really cool bit – finding a useful phage. The scientists have been working with the local hospital to collect bacteria from patients with troublesome infections. Michelle grabs a petri dish that's growing bacteria from a patient with a painful, urinary tract infection that keeps coming back. And to my amazement – one of the phage I collected from my toilet was able to kill this infection in the lab. "The way to see that the phage has infected bacteria is you get these zones where the bacteria are not growing and that's because they've been killed by the phage," says Michelle. You can see the leopard print pattern in the petri dish where the phage have been making light work of a bacterial infection that modern medicine was struggling to shift. "As crazy as it sounds, well done to the toilet sample," says Michelle with great delight. And when I was offered the chance to name the phage, well of course it's the Gallagher-phage. "Sounds amazing to me," says Michelle. So far this is all good fun in the laboratory, but could my phage ever be given to a patient? "Yes and I hope so," says associate professor Dr Franklin Nobrega as we look at images of my phage captured with an electron microscope. "Your phage, already in just 24 hours, we were able to get in a high concentration and able to be a very good killer, which means this is very promising for patients, so thank you," said Dr Nobrega. Phage remind me of a moon lander – a big capsule on spindly legs – just instead of landing on the surface of the moon they use their legs to select their victim. They then hijack the bacteria and transform it into a mass-production factory for more phage, which burst out of their host, killing it in the process. There are pros and cons to phage. They reproduce as they go along so you don't need constant doses like you would with drugs. They are also very picky eaters. You need a precise match between phage and the strain of bacteria you're trying to treat whereas antibiotics tend to kill everything good and bad. So it is harder to find the right phage, but if you do it comes with fewer side effects. Dr Nobrega tells me infected wounds are a "very good application" for phage because you can apply them directly to the injury, but they can also be inhaled via a nebuliser to treat lung infections or to target urinary tract infections "which is our target currently". Phage science may sound new and exciting, but it is actually a century old idea stemming from the discoveries of Felix d'Hérelle and Frederick Twort in the 1910s. Bacteriophage therapy was a branch of medicine and the idea was compelling. Even as late as the 1940s there was an active pharmaceutical industry in western countries trying to produce phage-therapy to defeat bacterial infections. However, it was rapidly eclipsed by the wonder-drug of the 20th century. "Antibiotics were working so well that most people said 'why bother'," says Dr Nobrega. Work on phage therapy continued in places like Georgia and there are individual accounts of it working wonders; but there hasn't been the same depth of medical research and clinical trials as there have for drugs. But just as the initial success of antibiotics suppressed phage research, the failure of antibiotics is reigniting excitement at their potential. More than a million people a year are already dying from infections caused by microbes that are resistant to treatment – it's known as the "silent pandemic". By 2050, that figure is projected to reach 10 million a year. This "antibiotic apocalypse" would mean common infections could kill again and undermine modern medicine. The drugs are also used to make organ transplants, open surgery and chemotherapy possible. "The predictions around antibiotic resistance are very frightening, but the reality is we're seeing it now and it's only going to get worse," says Prof Paul Elkington, the director of the institute for medical innovation at the University of Southampton. He is also a doctor with a speciality in lung medicine and is already at the point where - after a year of treatment and turning to ever more toxic and less effective antibiotics - "in the end you have to have a conversation [and say] 'we can't treat this infection, we're really sorry'". He says we can't rely solely on antibiotics in the future and phage are a potential alternative. But he warns the steps needed to get from the laboratory and into patients are "uncharted". Things are changing. Phage therapy is available in the UK on compassionate grounds when other treatments have failed. And the drugs regulator – The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency – has published its first official rules to support the development of phage therapy. "If one looks 15-20 years into the future, with the emerging methodologies, it's going to be possible for them to be much more widely available and for doctors to prescribe phage instead of antibiotics for some infections," says Prof Elkington. If you want to see if you can find a friendly virus too then The Phage Collection Project are launching their new sampling kits at the Summer Science Exhibition taking place this week at the Royal Society and through their website. "Antimicrobial resistance is something that could affect all of us," says Esme Brinsden from the Phage Collection Project, "when the public get involved they may just find the next phage that can help treat and save a patient's life". Photography by the BBC's Emma Lynch
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Rare colour footage of extinct Australian animal seen again after 90 years
An extinct Australian animal can once again be seen bounding across a paddock after rare 16mm film was digitised by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) this week. Taken almost 90 years ago, the clip contains the only known colour footage of a living Toolache wallaby, a species relentlessly hunted to extinction. While the marsupials were once common, the film itself shows just one female fenced in a paddock. She was likely the last living representative of her species when the footage was shot in 1936. Bernard Cotton, from the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia, would have understood the animal's significance as he travelled to film her at Robe, a coastal town located more than 340km south of Adelaide. The trip was in October, just one month after the last-known Tasmanian tiger died at a zoo in Hobart. The film begins in black and white and ends in colour, showing a Toolache wallaby completing common behaviours like hopping, eating, and cleaning itself and ends with a snippet showing four rock wallabies for comparison. Three years later, this individual was dead, and her species was extinct. Related: Unseen photos of Tasmanian tigers spark hope more could be discovered Australia has the highest rate of mammalian extinction in the world, and watching back the newly digitised footage in 2025, the Field Naturalist's current vice president, Peter Matejcic, said he felt 'saddened'. Not only did the Toolache wallaby lose habitat to the agriculture industry, it was both culled and shot for fun. A diary from the 1800s that was unearthed by the Field Naturalists indicates recreational hunting of native species was a common weekend pastime across Australia. 'Co-existing with native fauna is difficult given human priorities,' Matejcic lamented as he spoke with Yahoo News Australia. The film, Toolache Wallaby in 1936 by BC Cotton, is owned by the Field Naturalists and it has granted Yahoo News permission to obtain and use it for this article. A digital copy of the film has been held at the South Australian Museum for 20 years, but that version is entirely black and white. What's incredible about the newly digitised NFSA copy is that it contains 34 seconds of colour footage at the end. Few people alive today had likely seen the colour version until it was removed from a canister and digitised in June. In black and white, it can be hard for modern viewers to imagine what it was like to see a living animal that has since gone extinct. In 2021, the NFSA engaged experts in Paris to painstakingly colourise footage showing a Tasmanian tiger, but luckily, this wasn't required for the Toolache wallaby. As NFSA technicians stared at the canister, they were initially unsure of the film's condition. Its film services team lead Dave McGrouther explained older 16mm film is made from diacetate, a material that shrinks and warps over time. 'The reality of working with film is that it's all deteriorating. The controlled storage conditions we have slow that down to a great extent, but there are occasions where we come across a film and it simply can't be saved,' he told Yahoo News. The first five minutes of the Toolache wallaby film, which are in black and white, were in reasonably good condition. And while the colour section had deteriorated and turned a deep magenta in colour, it still helps viewers imagine what this fascinating creature was like to see in real life. Anyone visiting the South Australian Museum can see a taxidermy specimen on display, but watching one alive on film, moving through its environment, adds another dimension of excitement. Although Yahoo has colour-corrected two stills from the footage, NFSA opted to release the video without alteration because doing so could result in the loss of some detail. McGrouther is one of the world's most experienced film preservation experts. He's working on an NFSA initiative called Deadline 2025, which aims to digitally preserve sound and film from the Twentieth Century before it ages and degrades. This includes thousands of old newsreels from cities and regional towns that tell Australia's history. At current rates, it's estimated the team has at least 70 years worth of work ahead of them. 'Film is our cultural record, it's how we view ourselves, it's a visual record of what Australia looked like in this previous century,' McGrouther said. While film is an important way for Australians to visualise their history, written first-hand accounts are also powerful. In March 1945, months before the end of World War II, an article in the Field Naturalists journal reflected on the demise of the Toolache wallaby. It includes a historic description detailing when the species were in such great numbers they 'swarmed in the neighbourhood of Kingston', at the southern end of the state's famous Coorong wilderness. A separate account indicates visitors to Australia have always marvelled at its wildlife. A man who saw Toolache wallabies in the mid-1800s says, 'I never saw anything so swift of foot as this species: It does not appear to hurry itself until the dogs have got pretty close'. When it became apparent that the Toolache wallaby was vanishing, less than a century after it was first described in 1846, efforts were made to preserve the species. But a plan to capture and breed the last survivors in the late 1920s was disastrous, because most were left exhausted, stressed, and quickly died. Secret hidden beneath Australia's 'most important' parcel of land Tourists almost kill 'world's oldest' creature 'Inconvenient truth' that's a growing threat to Australia's reputation At 72 years of age, Peter Matejcic from the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia has seen 'significant declines' in biodiversity across the country. In 2025, there are more than 2,000 species federally listed as threatened with extinction. Some are already likely extinct, but not enough time has passed without a sighting for this to be officially declared. Others are in such small numbers their genetics could be compromised, making recovery a challenge. History has shown that captivity is not the magic bullet for preventing extinction, as seen with the Tasmanian tiger and Tooloache wallaby. Matejcic wants to see increased focus in Australia on protecting natural spaces so that native animals can thrive in the wild. 'Once a species is confined to only zoo enclosures, survival of that species may be too late,' he warned. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mexico threatens to sue Musk's SpaceX over contamination from exploding rockets
A small Texas town just across the border from Mexico is the testing ground for Starship, the hulking spacecraft that Elon Musk hopes will one day ferry people to Mars. In recent months, multiple test launches have ended in explosions, causing debris to rain down on both countries and in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexican scientists say the wreckage is killing wildlife, including dolphins, sea turtles and fish. Amid growing pressure from her constituents, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said this week that her government is investigating the "security and environmental" effects of Musk's rockets and has found that "there is indeed contamination," a charge Musk's company denies. Sheinbaum said her government is trying to determine whether SpaceX has violated international laws and said Mexico will file 'necessary lawsuits." Read more: 'The United States is the villain of our story.' Nationalism surges in Mexico amid Trump threats Her statements come amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Mexico on security, migration and the economy. President Trump's tariffs on Mexican imports and threats of U.S. drone strikes on cartel targets have sparked a surge of nationalism here. Musk, a billionaire who is also the CEO of Tesla and the owner of X, is closely allied with the U.S. administration, having donated more than a quarter-billion dollars to help elect Trump. For several months this year he was the informal head of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency. SpaceX said in a post on X that independent tests performed on the material used in Starships confirm that it "does not present any chemical, biological or toxicological risks." The company said it attempts to recover all debris from exploded devices. U.S. groups have also blamed SpaceX rockets for environmental degradation. The company's Starbase launch facility in South Texas abuts the Boca Chica Wildlife Refuge, an expanse of tidal flats, mangroves and sand dunes that is home to rare and endangered species including ocelots, sea turtles and northern aplomado falcons. A coalition including the Sierra Club and a local Native American tribe sued the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, alleging the agencies approved test launches without conducting thorough environmental reviews. They say failed rocket launches have spread concrete and metal debris across thousands of feet of surrounding lands — and once set off a fire that burned several acres of protected dunes. In Mexico, environmentalists began raising alarms earlier this year after space debris was discovered in the border city of Matamoros, in the Río Bravo — as Mexico calls the Rio Grande — and in the Gulf of Mexico. A local nonprofit in the state of Tamaulipas issued a report documenting animal deaths in a region known as a nesting ground for manatees, sharks, whales and other animals. It warned particularly about risks to sea turtles who ingest particles of space debris. The group said it had collected more than a ton of debris scattered along an area more than 25 miles long. The governor of Tamaulipas said authorities were also looking into the issue. Gov. Américo Villarreal Anaya said his government will verify whether 'the internationally required distances are being respected in order to have these types of facilities so that there is no risk to urban centers.' Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
