Earlier this week we reported on a proposal to cull some of the 5000 hedgehogs in the Outer Hebrides. Here are some of the emails we've received from Today listeners, not all in support of the 'Save the Hedgehogs' campaign:
"Can't we train them to climb trees and eat magpie eggs?"
Steve Parish
"It sound as if the hedgehog population has run rampant due to a dearth of predators on the island. Couldn't we just fly a few badgers into Uist to carry out the cull and save them from untimely death on our motorway network?"
Jane Millar
"There seems to be a problem finding an acceptable way to relocate those Hebrides Hedgehogs...How about driving along any stretch of road and releasing one each time a dead 'road kill' hedgehog is found. Thus replacing each dead hedgehog with a live Hebrides hedgehog. This solves the problem of causing an unnatural population imbalance where ever the hedgehogs are released."
Andy
"Surely, badgers have to live and if they eat hedgehogs, so be it! Please try to understand that nature is red in blood and claw. How is it that hedgehog huggers have no feelings for the slugs and snails the hedgehogs cruelly slaughter and then eat!"
Brian
"I am not anti-Hedgehog, I have them in my garden, and I have slugs as well, but I am pro-waders. In the Hebrides the hedgehogs are predatory alien invaders, they are common in most of the rest of the British Isles, but the Dunlins, Ringed Plovers, Snipe etc. have nowhere else to go. The "fluffy animal brigade" must separate the science from the romance in this situation, for example:
1) The children who want to adopt hedgehogs into their garden where they have one already - perhaps they will watch them fight to the death over the possession of territory.
2) If your garden is full of slugs, but there are no hedgehogs - obviously the garden isn't suitable for hedgehogs for some other reason, perhaps you or your neighbours are using too many slug pellets. It may be that you are simply not seeing the hedgehogs.
3) If you import a hedgehog to a vacant garden, the slugs will not magically disappear, - If the slugs were all eaten, the hedgehogs would then starve.
In this situation, the hedgehogs are on a par with Mink, which were also released into the wild by unthinking do-gooders, and their effect on the environment is the same. THEY MUST GO."
Andrew Bluett
"Supplementing the diet of badgers with hedgehogs from the Outer Hebrides would at least be an environmentally-friendly and ecologically-sound solution."
Ian Metcalfe
"Please save us from the growing tyranny of Conservationists. Our landscape is being "managed" on a grand scale, but for the benefit of whom? Nature can't be allowed to find its own solution any more. Hedgehogs are seen as a problem if they interfere with other species which the conservationists happen to think more important. What new human arrogance is
this? We can't leave even Nature alone nowadays - to sort out its own problems.
Yours - surrounded by miles of ugly new fencing (erected by conservationists)"
Colin Booth
"As the evening visits of "our" hedgehog have ceased I have been instructed to advise you that "we" are in the market to adopt 2 hedgehogs for our home in east London."
Jeff A Atkinson
"This year the boy racers (and girl racers - who are worse) have won the battle of motorist versus hedgehog north of Glasgow. I would happily accept ten or more outer island hedgehogs as they are far better than your last idea of coffee in that other battle - against slugs. I am serious about the offer."
Stephen Quaile
"Please let me have at least 6 hedgehogs if they are to be 'exported'. They would have a lovely garden full of slugs and snails in the countryside near Canterbury.
We are desperate to clear our slugs and snails, but do not like to use pellets. We have had families of hedgehogs in the past, but this year, none.
Thanks in anticipation !!!!!"
Chris Saunders
"Why is it that where there is an abundance of tasty mouth watering slugs to feed on there aren't any hedgehogs in the first place? Answer: Because, besides the abundance of slugs there is also an abundance of motor vehicles. They get squashed on the roads. Especially in the leafy South East of England such as Sussex and Surrey. So they die either way, wherever they live."
Mickey
"I understand that you are running a Hedgehog relocation project in order to
save them from extermination in South Uist. I must say that I can imagine
James Naughtie as a latter-day Noah chugging up the east coat in a converted
Thames barge sailing to rescue thousands of scared mammals. Please add my voice to those wishing to stop the extermination of the South Uist Hedgehogs. I am sure that homes can be found down here in the south for them. Good luck with your campaign."
Graham Potts
"We regular relocate hares from the Mendips to Kent, latter under-populated. Delighted to accommodate Hedgehogs on Mendip! Mrs Beeton, excellent recipe, 'baked' hedgehog!"
Graham Livings
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LINKS
LINKS
Read the hedgehog diary
Read the Hedgehog report
Lionel Kellaway investigates the bizarre ritual of hedgehog courtship
Hedgehogs on Radio 4's The Living World
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