Slaughter of the stoat... in 10,000 giant mouse traps
STOATS are to be culled from a group of Scottish islands in an unprecedented operation costing up to £6 million.
The animals are not native to Orkney but have colonised the islands, apparently after coming ashore with farmers’ deliveries of hay.
Now conservationists believe the predators pose a threat to the islands’ groundnesting birds and distinctive Orkney vole.
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is pressing ahead with a five-year plan to cull the stoats by hiring a 12-strong team to set 10,000 baited traps.
The scheme would be the largest eradication project in Scotland and, despite its high cost, SNH admits there is no guarantee it will be successful.
But of the 900 Orcadians who responded to a public consultation, 84 per cent were in favour of getting rid of the stoats.
SNH will now seek £3.4 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund to start the cull and funds have also been sought from the EU Life programme.
Similar eradication schemes for nonnative species on other Scottish islands, costing more than £8 million in total, have led to the removal of mink, rats, rabbits, and hedgehogs. Only hedgehogs on Uist were spared after a public outcry and were instead relocated to the mainland.
Experts do not know the exact population of stoats but there were around 500 sightings last year on Mainland Orkney and other outlying islands, including Rousay and Sanday.
The introduction of stoats to the wildlife-rich islands where there are no native ground predators threatens native species such as the unique Orkney vole. This in turn threatens endangered birds such as the hen harrier and short-eared owl, which prey on the voles and have to compete with the stoats. Stoats eat hen harrier chicks and also pose a threat to Orkney’s many groundnesting bird species, including red-throated divers and Arctic terns. Graham Neville, operations manager for SNH, said the stoats would be killed by lethal trapping – similar to giant mouse traps – adding: ‘It’ll be quick and humane. ‘We don’t know how many stoats there are but the plan is to get rid of every last one. Stoats are causing major problems and the benefits of doing this will be enormous. It will be the largest stoat eradication programme in the world.’ Last year, Stewart Housden of RSPB Scotland warned that if stoats are not eradicated ‘the sound of Orkney will change – those curlews, lapwings, all those species we all hear and love, will decline and go silent’.