Kimberly 
A conservation project has secured nearly £100,000 towards removing every hedgehog from a group of islands in the Western Isles.
The animals are not native to the Hebrides and are blamed for eating the eggs of ground-nesting birds, causing severe declines of several species.
A new project – Saving Uist Nature (SUN) – would trap hedgehogs in South Uist and Benbecula and release them on mainland Scotland.
A previous initiative – the Uist Wader Project (UWP) – has managed to keep North Uist hedgehog-free, but a lack of funding meant removals on South Uist and Benbecula could not continue.
RSPB Scotland, NatureScot and the Scottish SPCA are involved in SUN.
They have secured £97,840 from the Scottish government's Nature Restoration Fund to develop the project over the next 12 months.
