Cities are not often considered priority areas for threatened mammals; however, recent research suggests that urban areas may be important for water vole (Arvicola amphibius) conservation. To establish the potential importance of cities in supporting water vole populations, we used National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Atlas data to examine the occurrence of water voles within the United Kingdom (UK). Water voles were recorded in 28 out of 64 official UK cities in the last decade (2010–2018), and rivers and streams within parks, sports grounds, and urban reserves were the most important habitat types. In total, we found 497 records of water vole sightings within official cities, representing 5.0% of all records for this species in the NBN Atlas. Our results show that water voles are indeed found within many cities, suggesting that urban populations of water voles are more common in the UK than previously recognised. We therefore recommend that the importance of these urban populations for conservation of this species should be further established.

城市通常不被视为受威胁哺乳动物的优先区域；但是，最近的研究表明，市区对于水田鼠可能很重要（Arvicola amphibius） 保护。为了确定城市在支持水田鼠种群中的潜在重要性，我们使用了国家生物多样性网络（NBN）Atlas数据来检查英国（英国）内水田鼠的发生情况。在过去十年中（2010-2018年），英国64个官方城市中有28个记录有水田鼠，公园，运动场和城市保护区中的河流和溪流是最重要的栖息地类型。在NBN地图集中，我们总共发现了497个官方城市内有水田鼠的记录，占该物种所有记录的5.0％。我们的结果表明，许多城市中确实存在水田鼠，这表明英国的城市水田鼠比以前公认的要普遍。