Q & A

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Q: At least SNH was doing something that will solve the problem the wader birds are facing, why not just support them?

A: Were they doing something that will solve the problem? More hedgehogs were rescued by UHR than killed by SNH. But there is a bigger problem. SNH claims that there are 5,000 hedgehogs on the islands. This ignores a scientific paper published in 2000 that estimates the population was already 7000. If that figure is correct, then the killing and rescue combined has not yet seen an overall reduction in numbers - as each year more hedgehogs have been born than are removed.

There is an additional consideration here. The assumption that SNH is making is that hedgehogs are the prime culprit in the decline in the breeding success of the vulnerable bird populations. Now the science has shown that hedgehogs are certainly part of the problem, but they are far from the whole problem. SNH has noted that in areas of the Uists without hedgehogs dunlin breeding success has declined by 30%. Also, ringed plovers have declined by 50% across all the islands, even in areas without hedgehogs. And just across the water on South Harris, bird populations have suffered very similar declines to those on Uist, without the presence of any hedgehogs. If all the factors responsible for these serious population declines are not addressed then, at best, there may only be partial success even if all the hedgehogs are removed from the islands controlled.

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