Culling costs $1680 a bird

A controversial British cull of ruddy ducks, a United States native that has been compared to a "feathered lager lout" for its displays of thuggish and amorous behaviour, has cost more than £740 ($1680) for each dead bird.

A cull of 6200 of the chestnut-coloured birds has cost taxpayers £4.6 million, government figures show.

The disclosure has sparked an outcry from ornithologists and animal activists who have protested since the cull began five years ago.

Lee Evans, founder of the British Birding Association, said: "It's appalling and pointless, a complete waste of taxpayers' money. What's the point of it all? Our ruddy ducks don't go to Spain, but the French ducks do, and the French are not culling their birds. These marksmen are getting away with murder."

Sir Peter Scott, the respected conservationist, has been blamed for accidentally introducing Oxyura jamaicensis to Britain more than 50 years ago.

After escaping from Scott's Gloucestershire sanctuary, the species soon gained an unfortunate reputation: its mating call sounds more like a belch, it boasts a penis half the length of its body and, after mating, it ignores its partner.

- OBSERVER