Around 20 juvenile water voles were released at Ferne Animal Sanctuary in Chard 

Dozens of water voles have been released in ponds in Somerset in a bid to boost the "ailing" local population.

Up to 20 animals were released at Ferne Animal Sanctuary in Chard and a further 20 will "top up" the group, next year.

The reintroduction project is being funded by the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Elaine Hayes, from the sanctuary, said: "There are loads of places they can disappear off to get to know each other so fingers crossed they'll breed."

The group of two-month old voles were released in to two ponds on the 72-acre site in Somerset 

The endangered mammal appeared on the first official Red List for British mammals last month as one of the "most threatened" mammals.

Ms Hayes said the animal's decline was due to "really good water vole" habitat being lost by people "tidying up" around ponds and lakes and the "inadvertent release of mink from mink farms".

"One single mink can take out an entire pond's water vole population in a day," she said.

"Now we seem to have our mink population much more under control, it makes much more sense to think about bringing back our water voles."

'Repopulate south Somerset'

The group of two-month old juvenile voles, which were bred in captivity in Devon, were released at the 72-acre "mink free" site on Thursday.

The sanctuary hopes the "fabulous little mammal" will spread out across its ponds and beyond over the coming months and years.

"The idea isn't to keep them here, the idea is for this to provide a centre for them to start from," said Ms Hayes.

"We will have a group of volunteers monitoring them and fingers crossed they'll breed like rabbits and head out into the countryside and repopulate south Somerset."