Sniffer dogs to search for rogue island hedgehogs on Barra

Hedgehogs are not native to the Western Isles

Sniffer dogs are to be used to search for hedgehogs on Barra after one of the non-native animals was found on the island for the first time.

Their presence on the neighbouring islands of South Uist and Benbecula has been linked to a decline in wading birds.

Public agency NatureScot is mounting the search after the discovery of a dead hedgehog on a road on Barra.

Sniffer dogs will be used to find out if there are any others on the island.

NatureScot says that if any mammals are caught they will be relocated and released in a safe location.

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"NatureScot staff will search the areas with trained sniffer dogs and set up a network of live traps to establish whether there more hedgehogs are present," a spokeswoman added.

Work to remove hedgehogs from South Uist and Benbecula to the UK mainland has been taking place since 2001.

Hedgehogs were first introduced to the islands in 1974 when seven were released without permission in South Uist to eat slugs in gardens.

Conservationists are concerned about the impact of hedgehogs on ground-nesting birds

As the population grew conservationists found the creatures were eating the eggs of ground-nesting birds.

A decline in numbers of wading birds was detected in the mid 1980s.

By 1995 hedgehogs were common throughout South Uist and Benbecula, their numbers growing in part thanks to the lack of predators and not being run down on the isles' quiet roads.

The Uist Wader Project was set up to tackle the problem and it initially involved culling hedgehogs.

Following public outcry over the killing of the animals, the project moved to trapping and relocating them.

Efforts to trap and relocate hedgehogs to the mainland have been ongoing since 2002

Since 2002, hundreds of hedgehogs have been relocated to the mainland.

NatureScot said all the animals found on North Uist had been successfully removed.

It along with RSPB Scotland is now exploring sources of funding to enable a full-scale removal of hedgehogs from the rest of Uist.

RSPB Scotland said: "We are very concerned about the impact introduced hedgehogs are having on the fantastic native wildlife of the Uists.

"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."