SCOTLAND: A cull of 5,000 hedgehogs in the Outer Hebrides was approved yesterday to combat the threat the animals pose to rare birds.
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) claims the creatures prey on eggs and are jeopardising the populations of birds such as lapwings and oyster-catchers.
The animals were introduced into the islands off the north-west coast of Scotland in the mid-1970s when four were imported, probably by a local gardener anxious to control slugs. But since then the population has exploded.
Animal rights activists have condemned the planned cull, by way of lethal injection, but SNH's Scientific Advisory Committee ruled out relocating the creatures to the mainland because previous attempts have led to large numbers of them - up to 46 per cent - dying as a result.
- (PA)