New £2.5m cull launched to rid the islands of 10,000 marauding mink

Earlier this year, it was confirmed that the species, which has damaged internationally-important bird colonies, had been purged from North and South Uist and Benbecula.

The fight against the marauding animals will now continue in Lewis and Harris, where they are most abundant.

The first phase of the Hebridean Mink Project, costing 1.65 million, started in 2001 with the aim of clearing the animals from the Uists and drastically reducing their numbers in south Harris. Work will start shortly on the 2.5 million second phase in the rest of Harris and Lewis, which will take place over the next five years.

Mink were introduced to the islands in the 1950s and 1960s in attempts at commercial farming in Lewis. When that failed, the animals were released or escaped, and they spread rapidly.

Up to 10,000 adult mink are thought to have colonised the islands, with several hundred in the Uists. The voracious animals have been blamed for killing poultry, raiding fish farms and threatening bird colonies in the islands by eating chicks and eggs.

The new phase of eradication work is backed by Scottish Natural Heritage, Western Isles Enterprise, the Esmee Fairburn Foundation and Comhairle nan Eliean Siar (Western Isles Council). It was feared that phase two might not go ahead after a bid for the funding was turned down by the European Union LIFE programme, which paid half the budget for the first phase.

David Maclennan, SNH's area manager, said: "The first phase of the project lasted five years and has been a complete success. We are delighted to confirm that work will shortly commence in earnest in this, the second phase.

"The funding is in place to allow us to proceed with this work to protect internationally-important nesting wader birds."

He added: "The benefits of the removal of mink have been carefully monitored over the past five years and the overwhelming evidence is that its prey species, both bird and fish, are recovering well from earlier predation rates."

The RSPB will undertake bird monitoring and it is expected the Western Isles Fisheries Trust will also carry out monitoring work on fry and parr numbers in mink-affected fisheries.

Iain MacLeod, who recently became the project's manager in Stornoway, said SNH is now looking for a lead trapper and 12 associated posts to carry out the work.

He said the posts are demanding, with distances of up to 20km a day covered, often in bad weather.

About 230 mink were caught in the Uists and over 300 have been trapped on Harris.

A recent report indicated that the purge was working, with evidence of birds breeding successfully again in areas where mink had been eradicated.

In December, RSPB Scotland monitoring work found that Arctic terns were breeding more successfully in areas where the voracious predators have been trapped and shot on the Uists.

Nest survival of Arctic terns was found to be more than three times higher on the southern islands compared with that on Lewis and Harris to the north.

A survey found that the average hatching success for the species was about 40 per cent across the islands. However, there were significant differences for hatching success between islands, with 59 per cent producing chicks on the Uists compared with just 18 per cent on Lewis and Harris.

Of 86 nests in which the cause of failure was established, 62 per cent were eaten by predators.

American mink were included this year on a list of alien species that are being targeted for eradication because of their affect on native animals and birds.