TIME is running out for a breed of ducks who have set up home on lakes near Swindon.

Some of the wildfowl known as ruddy ducks tend to fly to Spain for the winter and then stay on for the spring mating season.

And they are mating with the local rare species of white-headed duck producing a mongrel that could force the indigenous breed into extinction.

The Spanish have said enough is enough and have called on the English to sort out the interlopers before it is too late.

In response the Government has drawn up a plan to cull 6,000 of the British ducks almost the entire population.

Dr Simon Pickering, the biodiversity officer for the Cotswold Water Park, said there were no more than 20 ruddy ducks living on local lakes and these will probably be included in the cull.

He said: "They tend to move around but have been seen on water in the South Cerney and Somerford Keynes area."

Ruddy ducks were introduced to the UK from North America by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge as a captive breed in 1949.

Three years later three pairs managed to escape and gradually numbers built up.

Dr Pickering said: "In Spain, millions of pounds have been spent trying to preserve the white-headed duck and now the Spanish are demanding that ducks in this country be culled because they say they are interbreeding with their ducks.

"Unfortunately I think a cull like the one planned is the only way to control this inter-breeding."