THEY roam freely across the island and are regularly found eating seaweed on far flung beaches.

But a professional hunter from the US has sparked outrage after posting pictures of her posing with dead wild goats on Islay shot during a Scottish trip.

American Larysa Switlyk uploaded a series of photos of the shoot on Islay and another in Ardnamurchan, which included images of four dead stags, two goats and one curly-horned sheep.

The markswoman, who has her own TV show in the states, praised the island for its whisky heritage but said she did not have time to visit any of its many distilleries.

Instead she had been updating her followers on Instagram and Twitter with a series of photos where she and members of her group pose with dead animals.

In one caption she writes: "Beautiful wild goat here on the Island of Islay in Scotland. Such a fun hunt!!"

"They live on the edge of the cliffs of the island and know how to hide well. We hunted hard for a big one for 2 days and finally got on this group.

"Made a perfect 200 yard shot and dropped him."

But the posts have sparked outrage with Scottish Brexit Secretary and Local MSP Mike Russell writing to his cabinet colleague Environment Roseanna Cunningham calling on the practice to be stopped.

He insisted that Ms Switlyk's goat hunting was worse than the hunting of red deer, which he said was "very firmly regulated" and "you don't see people glorifying in it very often."

Mr Russell said it was not clear whether anything could be done to stop goat hunting from happening, but he said he had a duty to raise it as "this isn't 21st Century Scotland. This isn't 21st Century Islay".

Headded: "The pictures are horrific. Obviously deer culling and deer stalking is established on the island and it's a necessary thing to do considering the lack of control of deer numbers.

"But to see people in camouflage with highly powered sniper rifles rejoicing at the killing of a goat, let alone a ram, is simply unacceptable.

"The vast majority of people would just not regard this as something that should be happening in their country.

"There has been something of an outcry already about it and as a local MSP I have now raised it with the environment minister because I think it's really undesirable and unpleasant."

Feral goats are thought to have roamed parts of Scotland and the north of England for about 5,000 years, when they were introduced by Stone Age humans.

There are currently estimated to be about 3,000 animals in herds spread across the country.

Ms Switlyk was also condemned by Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell, who urged the Scottish government to "make it known that bloodsport participants are unwelcome to visit Scotland for the barbaric practice".

But the Scottish Country Sports Tourism group said country sports tourism was worth £155m to the Scottish economy every year and several companies offer the chance to stalk and shoot wild goats in Islay, Dumfries and Galloway and other parts of the UK.

Green MSP Mark Ruskell said: “Trophy hunting is sadly alive and well in Scotland thanks to lax animal protection laws.

“The Scottish Greens are completely opposed to bloodsports – we should be positioning Scotland as a world-leading destination for ecotourism rather than chasing after the custom of a small cabal of wealthy hunters who take pleasure from killing animals.

“I hope the Scottish Government will take urgent action and end goat stalking and other bloodsports like hare killing.”

Islay B & B Orsay House also took to Twitter, saying: “I don’t think anyone of any repute on Islay was aware of this, we certainly don’t condone it.”

Deer, which have no natural predator, are classed as an invasive, non-native species in the UK, and hunting them on private land is not illegal.

Controversial culls have been carried out in some areas to reduce their numbers, while contraceptive darts have also been used to stop the animals reproducing.

In her social media posts, which were made on Tuesday, Ms Switlyk is shown wearing camouflage clothing and aiming a sniper rifle on the island.

Two photographs show her posing next to a dead goat, while another shows a dead ram.

Other posts from earlier this month show her posing next to dead red deer stags at Mingary Castle in Ardnamurchan.

In awe of my Scottish Stag ~ can’t wait to bring it back to the castle for the chefs to cook it up !

She also posted a photograph of her companion, known only as 'Jason' posing with a dead goat and wrote: "Congrats on Jason on his gold medal, goat here in Scotland on Islay. A unique hunt."

Earlier this month the TV host posted a photo with a red stag she shot while staying at Mingay Castle and said: "In awe of my Scottish Stag - can’t wait to bring it back to the castle for the chefs to cook it up!"

Switlyk is a former accountant who left her job in New York to pursue her passion for hunting and fishing, and now hosts Larysa Unleashed in the US.

The show follows her around the world and she also organises hunting trips through a firm called detail company.

She arrived in Scotland after a hunting trip to Greenland where she was pictured with dead caribou and an arctic hare.

Originally from Sarasota, Florida, she also posted photos of herself at the Old Course in St Andrews during her trip to Scotland.

A profile on her website said: "Larysa Switlyk grew up with three older brothers and a fear of guns. Yet, her upbringing taught her to be strong, courageous and not afraid to try anything.

"A mixture of a tomboy and model, Larysa is competitive, engaging and adventurous. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting in just four years, and promptly landed a CPA job in New York City. However, she quickly realized she wasn't a city girl. A gut feeling told her something was missing in her life."

Ms Switlyk has been contacted for comment.