United States
£ GBP
An essential guide to assist those surveying for water voles, whether as a professional ecological consultant, a researcher or simply an interested amateur. Water Vole Field Signs and Habitat Assessment provides detailed descriptions of all the habitats used by water voles, including ideal habitats as well as less typical places, with annotated photos to help the surveyor home in on just the right areas to look. It also contains a comprehensive photographic reference guide to assist in the correct identification of water vole field signs, and explains how to distinguish them from those of similar species. Tips on where and how to search for field signs are also provided, along with guidance on how best to record survey data.
Mike Dean has worked as an ecological consultant since 1997, with roles in varying size consultancies from the very small (one or two staff members) to the very large multi-disciplinary consultancy, and a few in between. He has undertaken ecological surveys and produced ecological reports of all different types and sizes. In 2013 he joined the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management’s (CIEEM) Professional Standards Committee, tasked with producing guidelines on, amongst other things, ecological report writing. He has been delivering training on report writing for CIEEM since 2015.
"This is a good, competent and thorough book. As field sign identification declines very widely in quality as an essential biological skill, Mike's timely work will help those who wish to work on behalf of the water vole to make decisions or develop understandings that are based on real knowledge rather than myth."
– Derek Gow, author of Bringing Back the Beaver
"This book contains everything I wish I'd known when I first started working with water voles! It fills a niche that none of the other current guidance on field sign surveys and habitat assessment does, which I think will be invaluable to ecologists new to water voles, or ecologists surveying water vole in less optimal habitat."
– Robyn Stewart, fossorial water vole specialist
