Water voles, Britain's fastest declining mammal, face existential pressure from introduced American mink, and individual vole welfare is acutely affected by predation risk and habitat fragmentation.
Water vole welfare involves both the acute suffering of predation events and the chronic anxiety of living under intense predation pressure. Studies show that prey species in high predation environments show elevated stress hormones and reduced foraging even when not directly attacked. The constant vigilance required in mink-present areas imposes a sustained welfare cost on individual voles alongside the direct mortality. Conservation actions that reduce mink density through humane trapping directly reduce both mortality and chronic predation stress in water vole populations. The welfare case for mink management is strong from a vole perspective.