FUR COLOUR: IN THE BLACK

Scotland’s water voles are thought to have different ancestors from the mainly chestnut-brown English and Welsh populations. Water voles colonised the UK during the Ice Age, and genetic studies have shown that two distinct populations took different routes. Scotland’s darker lineage are believed to have come across a land bridge from the Iberian Peninsula, while England and Wales were colonised from Southeast Europe. Most of Glasgow’s water voles are black, though some are brown.