Wascthat the species of Rat in "The Wind in the Willows"?

Is there anything I can do to help besides donating? Are you looking for volunteers?

I thought water rats were a problem..

@@ChrisCokeRobinson You hear the word rat and you immediately think problem. Why do people hate rats so much? I'm not even sure these are actual rats.

There are several rewilding project. You reported about beaver releasing too. Are the waterdogs and beavers competitors to each others?

yoooo

I see what you did there lol

No they LIVE THAT is their ourpose No living being is an object

@@cosmicreef5858 Every living being is food for another living being. There is purpose beyond life.

@@cosmicreef5858sit down unc it was a joke

@@cosmicreef5858 tell that to their predators lol

You can thank the anti-fur brigade for your Mink introduction. They used to raid the Mink farms and let the bloody things free without giving a thought to the consequences. They're the same sort of people that think its no big deal to have a cat and let it free to go around decimating the local small mammals and birds.

Welcome to liberal thinking where its illegal to keep your own local wildlife as pets. But legal to important animals from other countries. Because they cannot sustain themselves in your country is the logic. The sad truth is life is not so simple. Every western country is experiencing this failed concept due to law drafted in the early 1900s. Including many invasive species wrecking out ecosystems in the US as well. Practically all animals explode in population in human care. The cost is your local wildlife.

Wow, you saw it all happening! I remember hanging out by the small river near our village, lying on overhanging branches and watch the water rats swim by majestically. Peaceful days, long ago.

Yeah exactly, two key species for our wetlands, which we need more of!

Yes absolutely!

Modern agriculture is one of the most destructive factors to ecology across much of the earth. Together with destruction of habitat for creating spaces and roads for humans. It all ties into our overpopulation. Modern forestry as well, to cut down whole areas instead of plucking out trees. I don’t know how we can avoid global ecological disaster. Our best chance would actually be to help out the poorest populations in Africa and Asia so they don’t need or want so many children, but that would mean sharing our wealth in the west and keep corruption out both here and there. I do love every effort to help species and habitats though, thank you ❤.

@@blue2mato312 No

@@ZishaTV No what?

Have you heard of Nature Glenelg Trust. They do really similar work in Australia. They don't do videos but their newsletter shows off the fantastic work they do with landscape restoration etc

When there was wildfires in Australia, did they asked a permit to go through private lands? When humans shit on a planet, they dont ask permit to create bad... why they need one to create good?

Oh for sure, sometimes it takes a few years to really see change :)

I get regular voles in my garden and sometimes they get caught in the divot by my window, so I have to rescue them. Glad I ended up grabbing my carving (knife protection) gloves to do it, cuz lil guys are vicious!

Most likely. In Australia, we have similar rodents who used to also be called water rats, but an Aboriginal name for them, rakali, was adopted because of the negative connotation with the name water rat

I always knew them as water voles and it was a delight when we could spot one on the rare occasion.

After seeing this channel, www.youtube.com/@ShadowTheRat rats no longer have negative connotations for me.

I think the video title is designed to get clicks from people wondering why someone would release rats into the environment. They're usually called voles, not rats.

NYC ruined rats for me

:) well it be wrong to fake it!

Hell yeah man :) little Remmy was mighty pleased with you

think of it like this! You generated that rats fat offspring times X amount by feeding it and giving it an edge, so you've actually fed plenty of larger predators in the absence of the water vole. Some hawke or owl was undoubtedly happy you got confused sometime down the line

Thanks for the donation, it makes it all possible :)

That make the area even more epic, I’m not sure if they’re close by or not

Well Done to everyone involved!

thanks :)

I have absolutely no idea how two years have already passed since the release. Crazy times

I would say using Vole would have been more beneficial to the video, Water Rat is a minority common name, not often used personally i've never heard it used in person, Water vole is a apt name that Water rat needs never be used, after all true Voles and kin and true Rats and kin, are of two totally different families. Using Vole definitely wouldn't be worse, people are more inclined to see Voles as cute over Rats (although Rats don't deserve the negative just for being successful), also there's people that don't even know what Voles are and there curiosity of finding out what they are could make them watch. Using the Word Rat may make some people that skim read, see Rat and move on.

yeah great question, there's so much to consider when writing titles & making thumbnails. this and coming up with ideas is a huge part of making videos. generally speaking, a title should use words that can be recognized by a wide variety of people, create emotion & most importantly spark curiosity. with this one, we tested the water rat concept at mossy earth & it worked very well - so far this video is doing great for leave curious too - CTR is better when compared to other videos. as for the negativity around rats and that putting people off, I don't agree with it. much like wolves had been portrayed in the past as villains, I think it is wrong to villianise rats.

There's lots of green weed here 😎

Should think so yes!!

@thomvarey There is no need, water voles are recovering on their own. I work for a project called Waterlife Recovery Trust, as lead project officer for Norfolk, and so far this year we have not caught any mink in either Norfolk or Suffolk, with only 7 in Norfolk and 4 in Suffolk caught last year. Prior to that we would catch several and even though Waterlife Recovery Trust is a fairly new charity we have had a mink control program running in Norfolk and Suffolk for over 20 years, so we have been able to stop mink completely wiping out the water voles here, and because of the efforts of many volunteers over those years those surviving water voles are now rapidly spreading on their own. We record all sites with water voles and the map is showing their population spread very well. Reintroduction of water voles is only really needed if there are no close colonies which can then spread once mink are removed, it can also not be beneficial to reintroduce water voles into an area where there might be other water vole colonies because you can dilute the genetics of those colonies, the genetics of local colonies can vary quite a lot from place to place. If you google Waterlife Recovery Trust you can find out lots of info.

water voles are naturally recolonising norfolk + suffolk due to the mink trapping going on there so doubt they will be reintroduced... best to follow the water life trust to see their mink eradication project there

That’s happened in the US as well. It’s Agribusiness and it’s criminal what Agribusiness has done to family farms and to so many of our animals and their habitats. .

@@teresahiggs4896 In America, millions of acres are wasted on ethanol for corn. There are millions of acres of lawns, parks, and cities that could be used to grow vegetables. Blame the Farm Bill and Monsanto/Bayer and they fund all the studies for all the agricultural schools. I want to build a refuge like the one in the video, but I fear they're band-aids on late stage capitalism. Hemp could help reduce pressure on millions of acres being over-farmed by cotton, corn, rice, soy. We need to get through to our local state ag colleges & communities.

Yeah that be interesting to see what could get them… an ye gloves are hopeless.

@@LeaveCurious Think in Yellowstone they found the wolves ate them. But I guess that wouldn't be realistic lol

@@ajaxtelamonian5134 otters will compete with and sometimes kill the invasive american mink. But the only really reliable way of controlling them is trapping to prevent their spread. It’s not just water voles they kill but native fish, threatened waterbirds and amphibians

Will do !

I just googled them and oh my god they're beautiful!

@@tylociraptor8131 I have a couple of vids, including the one that gave me a tug of war over the perch lol and one begging handouts and getting hand fed.

@@AndrewFishmanI would love to see that!

@@SchoolforHackers you can :)

@@AndrewFishman 😂 Did you get your lure back?

Good one!

Yes it is!

Ah thanks very much. I’ve been focused a lot on developing the format lately, so I appreciate the feedback!

Yup :) nice when it works out

Nothing is progressive if it’s not regenerative

I think the UK could feed itself but the public expect too variety and have become spoilt. plus a lot is exported and there would be the income loss.

Most of the land is used to feed animals, not humans, and then we eat some of the animals, a very inefficient food chain. Look, I like my bacon and sausages as much as anybody, but it's just not sustainable. You can better make more greenhouses to produce lots of food on small acres and eat more fruits and plants. (I won't become a vegan though, I will take the middle route and eat less meat but not nothing.

Talk about rewilding with your friends and community, be active in the spaces that you own and try and get a group project going with neighbours and like minded others - I’ll make a vid on this

Planting native flowers and berries in your gardens to help the wildlife is a good idea. Setting out a butterfly wateringhole. Cutting back on using pesticides that are harmful.