Reprieve for Uist hedgehogs

ONE of the strangest, and most bitter, battles in the history of British wildlife conservation appears to have come to an end today - with victory for the humble hedgehog.

For the past three years, there have been bitter recriminations between bird-lovers in the Western Isles of Scotland and members of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society because of widespread slaughter of the popular mammal.

Scottish Heritage ordered the massive cull because, experts said, it was the only way to stop hedgehogs - which are not native to the islands but had been introduced - from eating the eggs of thousands of ground-nesting seabirds.

This provoked outrage amongst thousands of nature lovers in England, who asked why the animals could not be collected and moved back to the mainland alive. Scottish Heritage refused, saying trans-located animals would die, a decision which led to clandestine groups smuggling hedgehogs across the coastal seas.

Today, however, it was revealed that a survey by the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which had at first supported the cull, had now changed its mind after a survey which showed that the shipped hedgehogs thrived in their new homes.

As a result, scientists will recommend that the culls cease to the next meeting of the heritage board.