SOUTH Dorset MP Jim Knight has sounded the death knell for 6,000 birds in a bid to stop Spanish ducks becoming extinct.

The Biodiversity Minister has announced a nationwide cull of the ruddy duck in order to protect 2,700 white-headed ducks native to Spain.

He said the five year programme of shooting, which will cost £3.34 million, was necessary because the British waterfowl have been breeding with Spanish birds.

The resulting offspring is so fertile that the white-headed duck population is in danger of being wiped out altogether.

Imogen Davenport, Dorset Wildlife Trust's head of conservation, said ruddy ducks were regularly recorded on the county's lakes and rivers, with a handful of breeding pairs also spotted.

Mr Knight said: "If the threat of ruddy ducks is removed, Spain's globally-threatened white-headed ducks will have a much brighter future.

"This funding package follows through on our 2003 agreement to eradicate ruddy ducks, once further research on humane control techniques had been completed and other issues had been resolved.

"No country can remove the threat of ruddy ducks to Europe's native wildlife on its own, and we have been working closely with Spain and other EU nations to achieve international co-operation on this issue."

Sophie Atherton, regional spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, backed the move and said: "It's really sad, but regrettably the only genuine solution does appear to be eradication. We believe the Government is right and Jim Knight will cop a lot of flak for this but we are with him on this one. We hope the work will be carried out as efficiently and sensitively as possible."

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman said the ducks would be treated on a case-by-case basis and be shot, or trapped and then shot, as studies proved this was the most humane and effective method.

The cull conforms to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.

It is jointly funded by the European Commission, with Defra contributing £2.03 million.

The UK holds the largest proportion of ruddy ducks in Europe. Wildfowl collectors introduced them from North America in the 1940s.