Over 9,000 rats have been killed in the Western Isles as a by-
The rodents are straying into cages set by trappers targeting harmful American mink across Lewis, Harris and Uist.
A plague of rats is being blamed on the success of the £5 million scheme which has removed some 2,200 mink which were destroying local wildlife.
The lack of mink preying on rats allowed them to thrive resulting in their numbers increasing, claim many islanders.
But the cull organisers, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), revealed the programme has been helping to suppress the rat population.
David Maclennan, SNH’s Outer Hebrides’ manager, said: “As part of the trapping for mink we also encounter and kill thousands of rats.”
Iain Macleod, manager for the cull, said: “Many thousands of rats -
SNH says rat populations are determined by availability of food -
They will eat food left out for poultry and livestock and crawl through tight spaces to access buildings.
Mink is an alien species to the Western Isles and were imported when fur farms were established in 1960s.
Numbers of the escapees boomed and threatened the area’s biodiversity by eating nesting wader birds’ eggs and preying on wildlife.
Birds at serious risk are Arctic tern, common tern, little tern, black throated diver, red throated diver, corncrake, dunlin and ringed plover.
Thousands of rats killed during cull
12 December 2016