Atlantic Puffins: Climate Change and Seabird Colony Welfare

Atlantic puffins are beloved seabirds whose breeding colonies face significant welfare challenges from climate-driven shifts in prey fish availability, alongside threats from invasive predators and pollution at nesting sites.

Key Facts

Atlantic puffins breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs and islands across the North Atlantic
They feed primarily on sand eels and small fish that they carry in their bills to feed chicks
Sand eel populations have declined in many areas as warming waters shift prey distribution poleward
Puffin productivity — chicks fledged per pair — has declined significantly at several major UK colonies since the 1980s
They are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List following population assessments
Rats and mink introduced to nesting islands cause severe egg and chick predation
Plastic ingestion and entanglement in fishing gear cause significant mortality at sea
Puffins are long-lived, returning to the same burrow year after year with the same mate

Welfare Considerations

Climate-driven prey shortfalls mean adult puffins must travel much greater distances to find food, increasing energetic expenditure and reducing the quality and quantity of food delivered to chicks. Chicks that receive insufficient food experience prolonged hunger and reduced body condition, lowering survival prospects. Predation by rats and mink at colonies causes acute welfare impacts for individuals and can destroy entire nesting populations within years of introduction. Plastic ingestion causes gastrointestinal injury and can reduce feeding efficiency. The loss of faithful pair bonds and nesting sites through colony collapse represents a significant disruption to the complex social and behavioural life of these long-lived birds.

What You Can Do

Support island predator eradication programmes that remove rats and mink from seabird nesting sites
Reduce single-use plastic use and participate in beach cleans to reduce marine plastic pollution
Choose sustainably sourced seafood to reduce competition with seabirds for forage fish
Support climate action to reduce warming-driven shifts in prey fish distribution
Donate to seabird monitoring organisations tracking puffin population trends and colony health
Visit puffin colonies only through managed wildlife tourism that minimises disturbance