Puffin 'sat nav' reveals feeding grounds

Puffins travel hundreds of miles everyday to bring back food for their young, according to new research into the worrying decline of the popular seabird.

Birds on the Farne Islands off Northumberland, England’s biggest breeding colony of puffins (left), were fitted with ‘sat nav’ devices for the first time last year.

Tiny tags were glued onto the feathers of a dozen birds and collected after a few days. The scientists were then able to download data from the global positioning system or GPS device.

Initial results show the birds travel 20 miles out to sea several times a day to feed in sand eel ‘hot spots’. The birds, which mate for life, stuff up to 67 sand eels (left) in their colorful beaks each time to feed one chick in a burrow.

The research, carried out in partnership with the National Trust, sheds light for the first time on why the population of the Farne Islands crashed by 30 per cent between 2003 and 2008. It is thought the birds were unable to find enough food because climate change had ‘disturbed the food web’ and pushed the sand eels further north to cooler waters.

The colony is now recovering, with the population up five per centin the last year to around 40,000 breeding pairs, but conservationists remain concerned about the long term survival of the seabird.

Dr Richard Bevan, of Newcastle University, said the new information showed that birds rely on particular areas of the ocean to feed.

He suggested new ‘Marine Conservation Zones’, where commercial fishing will be banned by the Government, should be set up in areas of the oceans where seabirds such as puffins feed.

“Technology has come into its own here in the Farne Islands,” he said. “Knowing where these seabirds go to feed is a vital factor in their survival. For the first time we can accurately pinpoint where puffins, kittiwakes and other seabirds are going to forage, work towards conserving and monitoring these feeding grounds and securing the future of the birds themselves.”

However Dr Bevan stressed that further research is still needed into the complete life cycle of puffins in order to prevent another crash in the population. There are around half a million breeding pairs around the UK, mostly around the Scottish islands.

Dr Bevan is currently studying data collected from a different kind of ‘geo-locater’ device that should show where puffins are feeding in the winter. “There could easily be another crash in the puffin population until we know enough to stop it happening again,” he warned.

Source:
The Telegraph, "Puffin 'sat nav' reveals feeding grounds", accessed July 10, 2010