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ducks to prevent further contamination from American duck genes. Ramon Martin of the Spanish Orni-
thological Society upped the anti-American sentiment by describing it as “gang rape” when the ruddy
ducks descended on the native senoritas. 37
The ruddy duck invasion became an international incident. Eventually Britain and other European
countries agreed to kill off all of the thousands of ruddy ducks in Europe, shooting them out of the skies
and pouring paraffin onto eggs in their nests. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds—often the
arbiter of British public policy on birds—gave its support, and the British shooting began in 1999. By
2012, spending on hired guns had exceeded $8 million, and some sixty-five hundred ducks had been
downed at more than a hundred breeding and wintering sites. By the summer of 2014, just ten females
remained, and the government vowed to complete the extermination by the end of 2015, even though
flushing out the last would cost around $5,000 a bird, making them some of the most expensive ducks
in the world.
France continues to shoot the interlopers, but the Netherlands has refused. Many question the wis-
dom of all this. The fast-living, fast-breeding American ducks, hiding in their reed beds, may well sur-
vive efforts to exterminate them. They are now in at least nine European countries. In any case, it is
not clear how extensive the interbreeding is and what threat it actually poses to the survival of purebred
white-tailed ducks. Some naturalists say the whole idea of purebred ducks is an illusion. Cross-breeding
between species and hybridization are routine among waterfowl. They do it all the time. So why make
an issue out of the involvement of ruddy ducks? 38
The battle of the ruddy duck is a fitting set piece in the war over how we should see nature and what
protecting species should be about. Conservationists, it seems, are dedicated to protecting the weak and
vulnerable, the endangered and the abused. Nature generally promotes the strong and the wily, the resili-
ent and versatile. Conservationists support the purebred white-tailed duck. Nature backs the ruddy duck
and its bastard offspring.
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