Sniffer dogs to search for rogue hedgehogs on Barra

SNIFFER dogs are to be deployed to a remote Scottish island to search for hedgehogs after the discovery of one of the animals provoked fears that birds are under threat.

A hedgehog carcass was found by a roadside in Barra, a vital haven for rare birds, causing panic as the animals were not known to inhabit the Hebridean island.

It is feared that the animal could have been part of a larger unknown population, which would pose a major risk to ground-nesting birds such as lapwings, snipes and redshanks, as hedgehogs are known to eat their eggs.

A spokesman for Naturescot, the Scottish Government wildlife agency, said: “We have received a report of a hedgehog killed on the road on Barra which is the first record on the island.

“Naturescot staff will search the areas with trained sniffer dogs and set up a network of live traps to establish whether more hedgehogs are present.

“Any hedgehogs caught will be released in a safe location.

“Releasing mammals on islands can cause great harm to native wildlife and is treated as a serious wildlife crime.”

Removing hedgehogs from the neighbouring Uists has cost millions of pounds. Five years ago, it was calculated that it had cost more than £1,000 per hedgehog to remove the animals from North Uist.

How the animal arrived on Barra is a mystery – though it could have been released by an animal lover unaware of the potential carnage hedgehogs could cause. Another theory is that it found its way on to a ferry.

Hedgehogs are not native to the Outer Hebrides and were introduced to South Uist in 1974.

They have spread across the islands and reached a density where they damage wader populations.

Research by Naturescot and RSPB Scotland has shown that hedgehogs eating bird eggs is causing significant harm to internationally important populations of ground nesting waders found in the Uists. A RSPB spokesman said: “We are very concerned about the impact introduced hedgehogs are having on the fantastic native wildlife of the Uists.

“We are working with Naturescot to investigate whether it is feasible to move them off of these islands including how we might gather the significant resources that would be needed to do it.

“This evidence that hedgehogs are now on Barra is very worrying and shows the importance of biosecurity including surveillance and preventative measures to limit the spread of invasive non-native species.”