CASH INJECTION FOR PUFFINS

AN RSPB SCOTLAND project to aid Puffin conservation has been awarded £49,800 by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Puffin numbers across the UK and Europe have plummeted recently, leading to the species being declared vulnerable to global extinction. Now, an innovative project to help them will take place this year. Project Puffin (UK) combines the latest technology with citizen science to discover more about what Puffins feed their chicks, where they go to find food and how their numbers are changing. Counts will take place at a number of Puffin colonies. GPS trackers will be carefully fitted to Puffins at two sites in Scotland. During the summer, these 31 tags will provide information on where parent Puffins go to fish to feed their chicks. This will then be combined to generate maps of their offshore feeding areas, and to detail what conditions they need to feed. Further information on the diet of Puffins will be gathered through the citizen science aspect of the project. Visitors to colonies across the UK and Ireland are asked to take photographs of the birds with fish in their bills. An online portal will be set up to submit the photographs to; these will build a picture of what the chicks are being fed. Ellie Owen, who leads on the RSPB’S seabird tracking work in the UK, said: “Puffins are wonderful birds that are in desperate need of help. We’re immensely grateful to HLF for funding this vital work. “This project will give people the chance to get involved with the work being done to save them. The project’s webpage will feature regular video blog updates from the team, people will be able to see where Puffins have been tracked to, what information has been gathered on what they are eating, follow the stories of individual birds, and hear first-hand experiences from our Puffin counters. We expect the project data will advise government on the best ways to protect Puffins at sea.”

Puffin numbers across the UK and Europe have plummeted in recent years, leading to the species being declared vulnerable to global extinction

80% of Britain and Ireland’s Puffins are found in Scotland 580,000 pairs of Puffins nest in the UK Worrying declines mean up to 79% are predicted to have gone by 2065