"Helen" wrote in message
...
Couldn't believe my eyes to read about the slaughter of hedgehogs!
As I live
in OZ, I'm not sure of what RSPB stands for. Why would any
organisation
lead a slaughter of hedgehogs? Can someone please help?

RSPB = Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
Uist, one of the Hebridean islands, has a population of a number of
rare ground breeding waders which is of international importance. The
future of these birds is uncertain, due to egg predation by the
hedgehogs
The RSPB and Scottish National Heritage did not lightly come to the
decision to conduct a hedgehog cull.
There has been a strong opposition to these plans from circles which
appear not to have much understanding of the management of animal
reserves.
There is no doubt that the hedgehogs are indeed a pest in Uist. The
problem is that they are frequently thought of as being cute little
animals, in the same way as I think of a rat as being a cute little
animal.
The situation is somewhat similar to that which prevailed in Marion
Island some time ago. Marion's bird population was slowly being
eradicated by a feral cat population. The situation became so bad
that the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
had to employ a full time sharpshooter to find and kill every cat on
the island. That cull worked, and the bird population was saved from
that danger.

So far, the Uist cull unfortunately seems not to have been successful.
The problem is that either the cullers cannot count the hedgehogs, or
they breed faster than they can be removed.

Franz