Atlantic puffins are iconic seabirds facing declining breeding success driven by climate-related changes in prey fish distribution, alongside threats from plastic pollution, oil spills, and invasive predators at colonies.
Puffin chicks that fail to receive adequate food during the rearing period die from starvation, a prolonged welfare harm that increases as climate-driven prey scarcity becomes more common. Adult puffins that ingest or feed plastic to chicks experience gastrointestinal discomfort and nutritional impairment. Entanglement in gill nets causes drowning — puffins are pursuit divers that become entrapped underwater and cannot surface to breathe. At colony level, failed breeding seasons represent both conservation losses and welfare failures for parent birds whose extensive investment in nest preparation and incubation results in chick death. Predator eradication at nesting islands is one of the most effective and rapid wildlife welfare interventions available, immediately restoring breeding success and eliminating a major source of adult and chick mortality.