A vote is to be held on whether all the red deer on a community-owned estate in the Western Isles should be culled.
Some residents of 93,000-acre South Uist Estate have raised concerns about Lyme disease, which can be spread to humans from infected deer tick bites.
South Uist has among the worst rates of the disease in the Western Isles.
The board of community company Stòras Uibhist, which manages the estate and would oversee the cull of 1,200 deer, believes the action to be unnecessary.
It said the animal’s population could be reduced through targeted culls.
But about 200 members of Stòras Uibhist have signed a petition calling for the removal of all the estate’s deer. The vote next week could involve up to 870 people.
As well as concerns around the disease, there have been complaints about grazing on croft land and the damage the deer do to woodland, gardens and other property.
