The animals were the first to die by lethal injection on Tuesday night.

A team of workers from Scottish Natural Heritage trapped the animals while searching 60 acres of croftland on North Uist.

The cull of 5,000 hedgehogs is said to be necessary to protect rare breeding wader birds, whose eggs they eat.

Animal welfare activists who oppose the cull say, so far, they have saved 31 of the animals which will be taken to the mainland.

On Monday, the first night of the operation, no hedgehogs were found.

Hedgehogs were first introduced to the Uists in 1974 to help control slugs and snails but their population later boomed.