Puffin numbers are falling on UK's Farne Islands, Penguins are washed up dead on Brazil's beaches
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Monday, July 28, 2008
Puffin numbers are declining on the Farne Islands, which has United Kingdom's largest colony.
During the past five years, numbers on the islands have decreased by a third. Experts had expected numbers to rise this year, but believe the decline is due the birds being unable to find food.
Numbers of puffins have also been declining on the Isle of May, 100 miles north. Professor Mike Harris, Emeritus Research Fellow at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, said that the birds spend eight months at sea, and some don't return, which may be the cause of the lowering population.
Puffins, like many auks feed on fish and zooplankton, and it is not known if man-made causes, such as over-fishing or climate change have lowered the amount of food available to puffins, causing them to starve whilst out at sea.
"Whether it is climate change or man-induced we just don't know but I suspect the cause is oceanographic and it has resulted in the birds being unable to find enough to eat," said Professor Harris.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the world, hundreds of penguins, mostly juveniles, have been washed up dead on the beaches of Brazil. Pollution incidents frequently affect penguins off the South American coast but scientists have said that in this case the birds did not show lethal levels of polluatnts. Many of the birds were emaciated which suggests that this mass die off could be as a result of a crash in the populations of prey species.
Could these two incidents, so far apart, actually have a great deal in common?