Big downturn in number of puffins at UK's biggest colony

by Rich Bowden - Jun 5 2008, 21:32

Scientists have noted a downturn by as much as a third in the number of puffins at the Isle of May, the largest colony in the British Isles.

Breeding pairs of the unique Atlantic puffin at the site have reduced from nearly 70,000 in 2003 to 41,000 pairs this year, a dramatic decrease from the expected 100,000 had normal rates of increase been applied.

The dramatic fall comes after almost forty years of rapid population increase according to research carried out by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology released this week.

“Something worrying appears to have happened over last winter and probably the one before," said Professor Mike Harris, Emeritus Research Fellow at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology who led the study. "Puffins appear to be joining the ranks of other seabirds in the North Sea that are suffering reduced breeding success and decline in numbers.”

The Isle of May, in the Firth of Forth off the east coast of Scotland, is the main puffin colony in the UK and Prof. Harris has been studying the birds on the island since the 1970s, research that has included tagging and following returning breeding pairs.

The customary five-yearly survey completed this year confirmed the declining numbers.

"...we found some birds were coming back later than expected and others were coming in underweight," he told BBC News. "And a lot that we knew were alive last year have not turned up at all, so we assume they're dead - although it's possible they knew it was a bad year for food and decided not to come back at all."

Professor Harris added in a statement: “We need to repeat the survey next year to check the unlikely possibility that a large numbers of puffins took a summer off from visiting the Island. We also need to widen the survey to include other colonies in the North Sea to measure to what extent the puffin population is declining in the area.”

Though bird experts have asserted that more research is needed to determine the cause of the decline, some theories have blamed climate change for the reduction in plankton for the puffins to feed on, causing them to starve to death. Other factors may include over-fishing in the region.

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