Hedgehog

My dog spotted this snuffling around in a clump of grass in an ungrazed field today, but wisely kept his distance. Hedgehogs were introduced to Islay in the 1970s (and possibly several years before that) when a gamekeeper, recently moved to the island, brought them in to eat the slugs in his garden, from where they steadily colonised virtually all the low ground on the island. Like virtually all introductions it was a mistake. Though not predating ground-nesting waders's eggs on the scale that has done so much damage in the Uists, hedgehogs have been caught on camera predating Lapwing nests on the RSPB's Loch Gruinart reserve.
Malcolm