Environmental News Network - Study Finds Flightless Puffins Vulnerable to Winter Storms for Two Months a Year

Details: By University College Cork - MaREI Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre; 14.Dec

Puffins lose the ability to fly for up to two months every year – twice as long as previously believed.

Puffins lose the ability to fly for up to two months every year – twice as long as previously believed. Researchers at University College Cork (UCC) suggest the seabirds are vulnerable to winter storms due to their inability to fly after moulting their feathers.

Puffins must shed and regrow their feathers when they wear and lose shape, a process known as moult. When they moult their wing feathers, they also lose the ability to fly, leaving them bound to the water surface.

The timing and location of the flightless moult of puffins has long been a mystery to scientists because it occurs when puffins are far from land and out of sight.

However, the Marine Ecology Group from the school of Biological Environmental and Earth Sciences and the MaREI centre at UCC fit tracking devices to the birds to keep tabs on their activity. The group, in collaboration with researchers from the UK and Norway, put tiny loggers on the legs of puffins that record their behaviour.

Photo Credit: KonradJanik via Pixabay

Magazine menu

Study Finds Flightless Puffins Vulnerable to Winter Storms for Two Months a Year