Ruddy Duck cull, what do you think.

[Bushcraft]

I like these little guys, even though they breed with the white duck. However, DEFRA are having a cull of these pretty little ducks on a nature reserve that I work on today. They did this last year and almost wiped them all out and now the one or two we have left they want to kill. Just seems sad and wrong!

Also if you have not done it yet, please sign my petition to save my nature reserve (not the one of the cull), thanks.

Please help to Save these Nature Reserves!!! Petition : [ powered by iPetitions.com ]

Kris

[Bushcraft]

Can I edit the title?

[HARIMAU1610]

Signed your petition and hope it works......Nice photographs...

Take care

If you are into MMA You may find some interest in my website Black Triangle Silat


All the best Harimau

[Bushcraft]

Originally Posted by HARIMAU1610

Signed your petition and hope it works......Nice photographs...

Take care

If you are into MMA You may find some interest in my website Black Triangle Silat


All the best Harimau

Cheers Harimau, I will check it out

[nightshade]

Saw one the other day it dived and swam about 5 mtrs. before it reappeared
cheeky looking bird the damage is done let it get on with its life
Now Grey Squirrels.....

[John]

Ruddy Ducks are one of my favourite little Ducks. They are real characters and you have to smile when they do their bill slapping routine when displaying.

However they are an introduced species (by way of escaping from Slimbridge if my memory serves me right) and they have been integrating with the White Headed Duck (which is suffering already with low numbers). The only way they say to stop this is a cull of all the birds ( and they do mean all) from our shores.

Whether it is right or wrong I do not know. I just know I love the little guys and will miss them but I can see the reasoning behind the decision.

John

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Bushcraft

Can I edit the title?

No, but I can!

[aeshna5]

Personally I think the reaction to the Ruddy Duck is out of all proportion to the threat posed. Some £8 million is being used for this avian ethnic cleansing; surely this money could be put to far better use.

Ruddy Ducks are not really a problem here in UK + the White headed Duck in Spain was endangered by man from overhunting + drainage. The numbers in Spain are now recovering well + is it really such a bad thing?

Though I appreciate Ruddy Ducks are an introduced species, when a species starts to expand its range, it often hybridises with its closest relatives, eg Syrian Woodpeckers crossing with Great-spotted or many of the first Med Gulls in UK often paired with Black-headed or Common Gulls until more of their own species arrived. These crosses may well introduce some hybrid vigour to some evolutionary advantage? Who knows, but species aren't neat little discrete boxes!

Yes, Defra have been busy in London area culling these delightful birds + I certainly will be keeping any sightings of them to myself!

[Gill Catton]

we don't actually know for certain that Ruddy Ducks are no problem to the British Ecosystem. In their current low numbers this is likely to be true, but how can we be certain this would still be the case for a very large population? And of course by the time this species had developed into a large population it would be too late to do much about it and in the mean time the white headed duck may have vanished. I hope the shot birds are properly used, being of course free range and possibly organic. Though I suspect they're probably not which is a bit sad.

[GuyF]

I know it would probably be really expensive but couldn't they trap the ruddy ducks and send them back to America?
Guy