Editing Ruddy duck (section)

==Invasive species/Cull==
As a result of escapes from [[wildfowl]] collections in the late 1950s, they became established in [[Great Britain]], from where they spread into [[Europe]]. This duck's aggressive courting behavior and willingness to interbreed with the [[Endangered species|endangered]] native [[white-headed duck]] (''Oxyura leucocephala''), of southern Europe, caused concern amongst Spanish conservationists. Due to this, a controversial scheme to [[Local extinction|extirpate]] the ruddy duck as a British breeding species started; there have also been culling attempts in other European countries.<ref name="R.I.P. Ruddy duck">{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2814293.stm | title=R.I.P. Ruddy duck | date=3 March 2003 }}</ref>

By March 2012 a culling program in the UK, supported by the [[RSPB]], had killed 6,500, at a cost of £5m (£769 per bird).<ref name="theguardian.com">{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/mar/08/ruddy-ducks-extermination | title=Final 100 ruddy ducks in the UK facing extermination | newspaper=The Guardian | date=8 March 2012 | last1=Vidal | first1=John }}</ref>  In 2003 the [[BBC]] had reported the cost of killing each bird at £915.<ref name="R.I.P. Ruddy duck"/>  In 2012 Lee Evans, founder of the British Birding Association, claimed "The cull cannot succeed now. There are hundreds of ruddy ducks on the continent which will not be killed so the birds will continue to breed. There's never been any proof, anyway, that the British population has ever interbred with the Spanish ducks".<ref name="theguardian.com"/> By early 2014, the cull had reduced the British population to about 20–100, down from a peak of about 5,500 in 2000.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/10626557/The-ruddy-ducks-with-nowhere-left-to-hide.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331050056/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/10626557/The-ruddy-ducks-with-nowhere-left-to-hide.html | archive-date=2014-03-31 | title=The ruddy ducks with nowhere left to hide - Telegraph }}</ref>
According to [[Animal Aid]], in the UK the cost of hunting down the last few ruddy ducks was £3,000 per bird. They advised "If you see one, don’t tell anyone. Even bird groups will tell the authorities and those birds may be killed".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.animalaid.org.uk/the-issues/our-campaigns/wildlife/ruddy-ducks/#:~:text=Ruddy%20ducks%20were%20brought%20to,and%20this%20sealed%20their%20fate | title=Ruddy Ducks }}</ref>

In Europe, the ruddy duck is included since 2016 in the list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern (the Union list).<ref>{{Cite web|title=List of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern - Environment - European Commission|url=https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/invasivealien/list/index_en.htm|access-date=2021-07-27|website=ec.europa.eu}}</ref> That implies the species cannot be imported, bred, transported, commercialized, or intentionally released into the environment in the whole of the European Union.<ref>{{Cite web|title=REGULATION (EU) No 1143/2014 of the European parliament and of the council of 22 October 2014 on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread of invasive alien species|url=https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014R1143&from=EN}}</ref>
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