Wildlife

Wild Puffin Breeding Welfare and Climate Change

Puffin breeding success is declining due to changes in fish availability driven by climate change.

Key Facts

Puffin colonies in the North Sea are experiencing poor breeding success
Sand eels, the primary puffin prey, have shifted distribution northward with warming seas
Wrybill colony, the largest UK puffin colony on Skomer, has maintained numbers better than most
Some North Sea colonies have lost 50%+ of breeding pairs since 1980

Welfare Considerations

Puffin parents unable to find adequate sand eels must bring insufficient food to chicks, who slowly starve in nest burrows. The stress of repeated unsuccessful foraging trips followed by returning to a starving chick represents genuine suffering for both adult and chick. Climate-driven fish distribution shifts are a direct cause of individual puffin welfare failure.

What You Can Do

Support RSPB and Seabird Watch monitoring programmes
Advocate for climate action to address the root cause of sand eel distribution shifts
Donate to puffin research and colony monitoring
Volunteer for seabird monitoring schemes at puffin colonies