Why Are People Throwing Baby Puffins off a Cliff?
Iceland is famous for its volcanos, waterfalls, and glaciers. But the country is also well known for the millions of adorable black, white, and orange puffins who reside there and grow their families each summer.
“Every April or May, about 10 million puffins fly to Iceland from the Atlantic Ocean,” explains Ryan Connolly, co-founder of Hidden Iceland travel company.
After spending eight- or nine-months fishing and living in the Atlantic Ocean, the puffins fly to Iceland each spring, find their mate, and make a baby. “The puffins meet up with the same mate and find the same perch from the prior year,” says Connolly. “Then, they spend around 42 days gestating with one egg in the nest. Once the baby is born, the parents fly to the water collecting as many small fish, such as sand eels, as possible to feed their baby.”
Puffins can be found in several areas of Iceland, but many end up in the Westman Islands or Vestmannaeyjar, where only 4,500 people reside. While many puffins do great on their own, some get disoriented and need help from locals. This is why “puffling tossing” has become a tradition in the Westman Islands.
Puffling Confusion
The puffins live very peacefully here,” explains B, a tour guide for Ribsafari who has lived in the Westman Islands her whole life as she guided us through the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. “We don’t have foxes or snakes [or other animals that might hunt the birds]. As the summer continues, the hope is that the baby puffins, or pufflings, will grow to a good size and be strong enough to follow their parents into the ocean at the end of the season. Most are successful. But there are quite a few who aren’t strong enough to make the journey.”
“Due to climate change, a lot of the food sources, like the sand eels, have migrated further north to colder waters,” says Connolly. “So it’s making it harder and harder for these parents to fly out into the water to collect enough fish to feed their puffling before it gets to the end of that really short window of when they fly out themselves. Others get confused and think the streetlight is the moon. So they fly to town instead of making their way to the ocean.”
This is when many baby pufflings need rescuing–and the city residents are happy to pitch in.
Redirecting the Pufflings
There is a three- or four-week period each summer when the pufflings hang out on rooftops, under cars, and along the beaches, confused because they’ve gotten misplaced. This is when families with young kids, schoolteachers, and other locals go on a hunt for the lost pufflings. They pick them up, put them in boxes, and take in the rescued puffins. A tradition that started in 2003 and is called “The Puffling Patrol Program.” This activity is important because, even though there are way more puffins in Iceland than humans, the overall global population is in decline, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status lists the birds as “vulnerable.”
Kristín, another guide at Ribsafari who has also lived in the Westman Islands her entire life, and her three sons found 14 pufflings in two hours. Last year, she and her family split into three different groups and rescued 46 pufflings after they stayed up all night. Depending on the pufflings’ health, the families take them to cliffs or the beach and hope they’ll catch the wind and fly off to sea.
Celine Salagnat/IStock
Rehabilitating the Pufflings
While many pufflings do well with redirection, some aren’t strong enough on their own and need rehabilitation. They may have oil on their wings from the city or other issues. This is when the SeaLife Trust, a U.K. non-profit company that has a puffin sanctuary, steps in. Professionals from the SeaLife Trust clean the birds’ wings with dish detergent and keep an eye on them until they are stronger.
Puffin season started early this year, but there were still 12 in the hospital when I was in Iceland in late August. The puffins were fed by the trainer, who kept a close eye on how they ate and behaved.
“It’s natural and a good sign when the pufflings go into the water to eat,” says Kim Cupples, General Manager of the SeaLife Trust. The SeaLife Trust gives them the support they need but is quick to turn them back to the wild. “The goal is to keep them at the sanctuary as little as possible.”
Erik Mandre/Shutterstock
Tossing the Pufflings
Around 1:30 p.m. that Tuesday afternoon at the very end of August, I followed Chris, an Animal Care Specialist from the SeaLife Trust, as he placed a rehabilitated puffling in a simple cardboard box and drove him to the edge of the island. He held the puffling in his hands, walked to the cliff, and placed him high in the air. The puffling felt the wind and flapped his wings, which can average up to five times per second. Then, the puffling was tossed off the cliff where, within seconds, he flew back up before quickly diving down to the ocean, grazing the water, and flying away with the other puffins.
On average, the SeaLife Trust rehabilitates 60 to 70 pufflings per year. While many are able to fly off, a few baby puffins are found to have disabilities and aren’t able to survive on their own. These pufflings stay at the sanctuary, where they are monitored and kept safe. Currently, there are three blind puffins at the sanctuary.
Maleo Photography/Shutterstock
Visiting the Puffins
Locals prefer that tourists don’t get involved with the pufflings, but there are still many ways to be around the puffins each season. Staying in a hotel in southern Iceland, such as Hotel Rangá, gets you within a half-hour car ride from the Westman Islands ferry. The ferry ride is about 45-minutes long and a pretty trip where you can view the ocean and mountains from the boat. Once you arrive at Vestmannaeyjar, the SeaLife Trust is just a short walk away, where you can learn more about the birds and get a tour of the facility.
INSIDER TIPTo support the ongoing efforts of the SeaLife Trust, you can donate or even adopt a resident puffin.
Numerous tour guides can take you directly to the mountains on a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB), where you can see the puffins fly overhead, sit on the mountains, and swim in the water. While you’re there, take note of the few sheep who are placed on top of the mountain each season to help maintain the grass.
“The puffins make the boroughs in the grass, and the sheep help them do that,” says B. “It would be impossible to get a lawnmower on the mountain, so the people in town put a few sheep in a bag and pull them up the mountain with a rope to keep the grass trimmed.” At the end of the season, they bring the sheep back down off the mountain.
This year, the puffins arrived earlier than usual and were still in the Westman Islands at the end of August. But typically, they’re gone by late August or early September. It’s hard to predict when they will go, but once they do, they go altogether. “By the end of August, the puffins all fly off, sometimes overnight,” says Connolly.
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