Here is the Press Association story on this. Might help with some of the background,.
Peter
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PLANS SET `FOR CULL OF 6,000 RUDDY DUCKS'
By Andrew Woodcock, Political Correspondent, PA News
Plans are to be announced for a cull of 6,000 ducks in the UK to help
preserve an endangered species in Spain, it was reported today.
Conservationists believe the cull of the ruddy duck, which was introduced to
Britain from its native North America in the 1940s, is the only way to save the
Spanish white-headed duck.
The ruddy duck migrates to Spain in the winter, where it aggressively mates
with the genetically-related white-headed bird, producing a hybrid species,
which conservationists fear will eventually replace the indigenous duck
altogether.
But protesters have accused the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs of genetic cleansing and insist the interbreeding is simply an
example of Darwinian natural selection.
Environment minister Elliott Morley was expected to announce the cull of the
ruddy duck, which is found at about 1,000 sites in the UK, on Monday, reported
the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Dr Mark Avery of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds backed the
move.
He told Today: The ruddy duck is a North American species and it was brought
here and released in the UK by accident at a time, 50 years ago, when nobody
envisaged the problems it would cause.
Ruddy ducks moving to Spain are the principal threat now to the white-headed
duck, which is threatened with extinction.
There are plenty of examples around the world where introduced species have
hybridised with native species and the native species has been swamped and after
a period of years that species no longer exists.
But the director of Animal Aid, Andrew Tyler, denounced the plan as a rather
grotesque exercise .
He told Today: It is an attempt at the genetic cleansing of nature. Some of
the ruddy ducks have gone to Spain and are mating with a close genetic kin,
which is endangered and brought to the point of extinction because it has been
hunted and its habitat destroyed.
They mate and produce what the conservation zealots of the RSPB call an
impure hybrid, but the white-headed duck, when it sees its progeny, doesn't say
`Oh my God, an impure hybrid!' This is Darwinian adaptation.
end
010806 MAR 03
RUDDY DUCK SET TO BE WIPED OUT
By Tom Whitehead, PA News
The ruddy duck is set to be wiped out in Britain after the Government agreed
in principle to eradicate it to protect other endangered species, it was
disclosed today.
The ducks, originally from America, are seen as a threat because they
regularly fly to Spain and mate with the endangered white-headed duck, risking
the breed's demise.
Partial culls were carried out in Britain last year but the Government is now
expected to announce such cuts in the population were not effective enough.
The news has enraged animal welfare groups who have described any cull as
grotesque and obscene .
In a written statement to the Commons on Monday, wildlife minister Elliot
Morley will announce a Government commitment to further research in to the
problem of the ruddy duck.
But the statement will also announce, for the first time, that the Government
has agreed in principle that eradication is the best strategy, a spokesman for
the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said today.
There are an estimated 6,000 ruddy ducks in Britain and reports suggest any
total cull would cost around £5 million and take up to six years.
mf
011004 MAR 03