The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Thank you, John, for some interesting and relevant comments on this ongoing Ruddy Duck debate.

The more I read on the subject, the more it all seems to hinge on the scientists/taxonomists/fellow travelling conservationists' fixation on both the 'heritage debate' and the absolute necessity of the 100% purity of a species and , I fear, an even further fixation now, as with any "cause celebre", a relentless desire to see the project through to the very end...despite any new factors which might have emerged in the meantime.

'It thus becomes a tragic tale of racial purity, of avian ethnic cleansing by the 'professionals' who look at a species as sacred, sacrosanct. The reality, however, is that nature is in a constant state of flux. Conservationists have indeed found a ready scapegoat in the Ruddy Duck and are actually just diverting attention,and money, away from the real issues of massive environmental degradation.'

As the Guardian article quoted below states : Last year, some European countries with Ruddy Duck populations, (ignoring the very unlikely threat of being fined) gave up trying to kill any more birds for both financial and logistical reasons. Further,some websites tell us that the Ruddy Duck is thriving in Portugal and that there are also several thousand WH Ducks thriving in Spain.....seemingly unaffected by the Ruddy Ducks across the border.

......and the Guardian article :........

The Guardian article of 8th March 2012, appearing on Google if one keys in " Final 100 Ruddy Ducks in the UK facing extinction ," tells us that :

"The cull has killed 6,500, at a cost of £5 million, and the Goverment is about to spend a further £200,000 on the remaining (100 or so) birds." Anyone, but anyone, except a totally blinkered pro-cull individual, must agree that spending £5 million plus on eradicating a species of bird in the UK so as to preserve the 100% racial purity of a species in another distant (1000+ miles) country is a VERY large sum of money and a very questionable project. Some might even add that the money could have been better spent on 'bird protection' rather than 'bird extermination'.

One now begins to wonder if the whole project will be quietly shelved in Continental Europe while the ever-compliant British are left isolated as usual, and counting the cost of an unpopular (just look at our ongoing poll figures),short-sighted, gung-ho, very expensive (and in the end, pointless) adventure ..............not forgetting the bodycount of some 6,500 unfortunate Ruddy Ducks.

Freddy