THE People’s Trust for Endangered Species is calling for more volunteers in East Hampshire to help combat declining UK water vole populations.

In 2015, the Trust launched the inaugural national water vole monitoring programme and, after a successful initial year, is hoping to build on this citizen science project with a call for more volunteers to participate in May.

Water voles were once a common sight along UK riverbanks and waterways, but over the last century they have experienced the most severe decline of any wild mammal in the UK. The monitoring programme provides an essential resource in an effort to conserve the species.

The decline in water vole populations has been attributed to the intensification of agriculture in the 1940s and 1950s, and more recently the release of non-native American mink during the 1980s and 1990s.

This spring, the charity is asking existing water vole monitors, and new recruits, to take part in the 2016 monitoring programme. Volunteers are required to survey one of the nearly 900 pre-selected sites across England, Wales and Scotland, and record all sightings and signs of water voles along a 500-metre length of riverbank during May.

To take part, visit ptes.org/watervoles.