Richard Collins: How voles make an unlikely contribution to science

They have provided insights into one of the enduring mysteries of Arctic rodents; the cyclical boom-and-bust swings in the numbers of these little mammals.

Bank voles may have stowed away in cargoes destined for the Shannon hydroelectric scheme in the 1920s. We are not the only islanders to have experienced a rodent invasion; sibling voles were discovered on Spitzbergen in 1960. They had hitched rides in animal fodder being transported to the Nordic archipelago on Russian ships supplying the mining industry.

Auks and kittiwakes, breeding on Spitzbergen’s cliffs, fertilise the soils around them with their droppings. The voles, being vegetarian, thrived on the resulting rich grasses.