PANELS detailing the plight of one of the region's most endangered creatures will be set up at one of the animals' last breeding grounds in the North-East.

The Durham Wildlife Trust scheme is the latest stage in the Coals to Voles project, which aims to preserve the creature's habitats and link its scattered populations.

The animal, which was the inspiration for the character Ratty in Kenneth Grahame's children's novel The Wind in the Willows, was once common in the region.

But numbers have fallen because of a combination of US mink, predators that escaped from fur farms and changes in agriculture that greatly reduced its habitat.

In 1990, the population in County Durham and Northumberland was estimated at 427,000. Less than a decade later, the figure was 29,000, a fall of 93 per cent.

Water voles are now only found in certain industrial areas of Tyne and Wear and County Durham, the north-west and south-west industrial estates in Peterlee, Silksworth dry ski slope in Sunderland and Rainton Bridge industrial estate, at Houghton-le-Spring.

The panels will be installed in all the areas.

Coals to Voles project officer Jim Cokill said: "These creatures really are in danger of disappearing, which would be a tragedy."

Companies that have signed up to help preserve water vole habitats include NSK and npower in Peterlee, which are carrying out work on a stream bank to make it more water vole-friendly.

Mr Cokill is also working with Easington District Council and Sunderland City Council.

He said: "We will be doing a lot of work with local companies and councils on how they manage various areas, such as letting the grass grow longer at the sides of streams."

To help the project, call Mr Cokill on 0191-584 3112.