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WATER VOLE: My Article Is On A Water Vole:

General Facts: The Water Vole lives along banks of canals, slow moving rivers, lakes and marshes and is about 8 inches long. It is sometimes incorrectly called the Water Rat, this being a confusion with the Brown Rat which also swims well. The water vole is usually seen as it dives into the water to swim. Its normal tendency is to submerge, whereas a rat stays on the surface. After swimming, the water vole often sits upright on the bankside, feeding on a water plant or washing its face. One sign of its whereabouts is is a patch of the bank where the plants have been bitten off. There may also be tracks in the mud near by. The water vole has a home territory based on a burrow, the entrance to which is sometimes just below the surface of the water. Male voles live along about 130 metres of water bank, while females have ranges about 70 metres long. They deposit distinctive black/greenish, shiny faeces in latrines. Latrines occur throughout and at the edges of their range during the breeding season.