Ruddy Duck...over here but not wanted...a shame

The Ruddy Duck is an introduced bird to Britain (originally from America) and as a result of escapes from wildlife collections in the 1940's they became established in the UK. Because of the Ruddy Ducks aggresive courting behaviour and a willingness to interbreed with the endangered White-headed Duck of Southern Europe it has led to a cull to extirpate the bird from these shores at a cost to the UK taxpayer of £4.6 million thats £740 a bird. I have just read that while we have been killing these (IMO) beautiful and comical little birds the French (whose Ruddy Duck population are more likely to be mating with the Spanish birds than ours) aren't doing anything about their Ruddy Duck population. I watched this funny little bird drumming his beak on his chest on my local patch last year but have not seen one in 2010. I hope it's not R.I.P to a lovely watchable little Duck in the UK and personally I think the whole exercise has been a total waste of our hard earned cash...........Rant over.