Author: Ian D. Rotherham (MENAFN - The Conversation) The ruddy duck, originally from North America, was introduced to Britain as an ornamental wildfowl in the 1940s and soon spread throughout the country. Only after a decade or more of expensive culling, has this non-native duck been largely removed . The success of eradication programmes like this has led to calls to similarly cull the ring-necked parakeet , a species from Africa and south Asia that is now a common sight in London and is spreading across Britain. As the UK's only naturalised parrot and the most northerly breeding parrot in the world, any cull promises to be highly controversial.