LIFE Oxyura

The LIFE Oxyura is a European program contributing to the protection of an endangered diving duck native to Eurasia: the white-headed duck (Oxyura leucocephala).

To manage this threat, the involved European countries signed in 1997 an international eradication plan led by the European Council and issued by the Berne Convention. Eradication of the ruddy duck from the European territory is now a prime objective of the conservation plan of the white-headed duck.

This LIFE project, conducted since October 2018 by the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), a public institution, and issued for five years, aims at regulating the ruddy duck population in France, into the wild and in captivity. It is an application of the European and national eradication plans of the species reinforced by the new legal dispositions adopted by the European regulation 1143/2014 on invasive alien species.

The National Society for Nature Protection, in charge of the National Nature Reserve of the Grand-Lieu lake, the main wintering site of the ruddy duck in France, is the associated beneficiary of the project.

Ruddy duck observations in France since 1974 – data from the French Biodiversity Agency.

_{Select all years and click on the target to observe the population size evolution in the wintering sites.}
^{Click on a circle to see monthly details. Last update: 01-15-2024}