A KENDAL couple are appealing for readers to help them in their bid to save 5,000 Scottish hedgehogs from a prickly end.

Hedgehog carers Roger and Margaret Dixon have leapt in to action at the news that the end could be nigh for the nocturnal creatures living on the Uist isles.

The Hebridean hedgehogs are facing an imminent cull by lethal injection as their taste for the island's rare birds' eggs has left wader populations dwindling.

But conservationists are planning to storm the islands in spring and relocate the homeless hedgehogs on the mainland and Mr and Mrs Dixon have offered to help with the re-location.

They have to find local homes for 50 of the threatened creatures and desperately need people who live in suitable areas for their release to come forward:

"We were told by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society about the rescue and so we volunteered to release some of them in Cumbria. We need to find 25 local people who live in suitable areas where the hedgehogs can be released in pairs.

"Places like open woodland and scrubland which is away from major roads, and their only predator the badger, would be ideal. Volunteers would need to feed them dog food for a few days before they disappeared of their own accord."

The married couple has looked after nearly 100 sick and homeless hedgehogs in their three years as carers and have two as permanent pets.

They are desperate to save the hibernating mammals from a rude awakening when they rouse from their winter sleep in March: "I think the planned cull is unnecessary. They can be rescued and released without difficulty. We just need people to come forward and offer to help."

A small number of hedgehogs were first introduced to the Uists in 1974 to control snails and slugs. But as they bred out of control their weakness for birds' eggs saw wader numbers wane. Last December, government agency Scottish Natural Heritage decided the only way to protect the birds was a hedgehog cull.

Anyone who would like to help the Uist hedgehogs should contact Mr Dixon on 01539-727920.

February 6, 2003 15:30