"QUEEN guitarist Brian May has given thousands of pounds to save hedgehogs from slaughter in the Outer Hebrides, it emerged yesterday...

it is said to be enough to pay for the rescue of hundreds of hedgehogs from the Uists, where Scottish Natural Heritage has been culling the animals for the past four years.

The hedgehogs pose a threat to rare ground-nesting birds and their eggs.

So far more than 500 have been killed by lethal injection and more than 700 saved. There are believed to be about 3,000 left on the islands."


'Top rock guitarist helps save islands' hedgehogs' by Mike Merritt. The Scotsman, 7 August 2006.