Q & A

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Q: SNH claimed to have made its decision to cull after discussing the issue with scientists - shouldn't we have believed them?

A: Well, scientists do sometime disagree! But if you talk to the experts in the field of hedgehog behaviour and ecology, they will agree that translocation can, and does, work. For example, at the European Hedgehog Research Group’s conference in Germany in 2004 the vast majority delegates signed up to a statement calling for a halt to the cull and a careful and well-monitored translocation to be supported.

Dr Pat Morris, now retired from London University, said: "SNH has been obdurate in its communications with the people who know about hedgehog ecology and hedgehog welfare."

Q: If a van-load of hedgehogs from the Uists is deposited in a new location won’t the resident hedgehogs suffer?

A: This is a good question. The argument here is that if we add ten hedgehogs to the mainland population, ten others will die. But hedgehogs do not exhibit such density dependence - other factors are far more significant in controlling numbers, such as the length and severity of the winter.

We need to consider how hedgehogs are released by UHR following their rescue from the Uists. Vanloads are not dumped anywhere - hedgehogs are carefully released in small numbers into suitable locations such as gardens where there are no predators and additional food and shelter is provided.

The study by Hugh Warwick collected data from every wild hedgehog found. Some of the individually marked residents were caught many times, and none of them showed any significant reduction in body weight.

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