Wild Puffin Climate Threats and Welfare

Atlantic puffins face increasing welfare pressure from climate-driven prey fish declines and extreme weather events affecting their breeding success.

Key Facts

UK puffin populations declined by approximately 30% over the past 25 years
Puffins depend heavily on sandeels as prey for chick rearing
Climate change has reduced sandeel abundance in the North Sea by displacing their prey northward
Poor breeding years are linked to food shortages during the critical chick-rearing period
Chicks that starve before fledging experience significant welfare harm
Adult puffins expend enormous energy diving for insufficient prey in poor years
Extreme storm events damage burrow colonies and kill chicks and adults
Puffins breed in burrows - colony disturbance from human visitors causes nest abandonment

Welfare Considerations

Puffin chick starvation in poor sandeel years causes acute welfare harm at colony scale. Adults unable to provision chicks adequately face the physiological cost of repeated foraging attempts yielding insufficient returns. Colony-level breeding failure represents thousands of individual welfare incidents. The root cause - climate-driven prey displacement - requires systemic policy responses. At individual level, avoiding colony disturbance and supporting sandeel protection areas prevents compounding welfare harms from human activity.

What You Can Do

Visit puffin colonies only from designated viewing areas to avoid nest disturbance
Support RSPB campaigns protecting sandeel fishing restrictions in key seabird feeding areas
Advocate for climate policies that address the underlying driver of prey fish decline
Report unusual puffin mortality events to the RSPB and BTO
Support the Seabird Monitoring Programme to track colony breeding success annually