Adopt a Puffin

Puffins.... adorable, comical, with colourful beaks, they are easily recognisable.  But they need our help, to help them adapt to climate change.

The puffin is on the Red List of UK Birds of Conservation Concern.  It's Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.   The problem the puffin has is that its breeding numbers are all in a very small number of places.  So it's really affected by changes in the environment.

To make matters worse, there have been changes in the numbers of small fish, and their distribution - puffins eat small fish.  Predators such as the rat, mink and cat have been introduced to places where the puffins are.  

And the list of threats goes on - pollution threatens them.  In 1967, the oil leaked from the Torrey Canyon killed 85% of the French puffins.  Puffins have a low reproductive rate - so something like this really hits them hard. 

To help puffins, we need to ensure: 

• Our sustainable use of the seas
• Less marine pollution
• Stop predators on the ground getting to nesting colonies.

Anyway, here are a couple of ways to adopt a puffin and help these comical birds.

Adopt a puffin from the Scottish Wildlife Trust 

Adopt a puffin today and help to protect this iconic species and Scotland’s precious natural environment.  Adoption packs contain 

• A personalised adoption certificate
• A beautiful wooden keyring featuring a puffin
• An exclusive papercraft model of a puffin
• An Atlantic puffin fact file
• A Go Wild activity book
• A puffin bookmark
• Two stunning puffin postcards
• Details on how to sign up to receive exclusive email updates about puffins

Adopt a Burhou puffin with the Alderney Wildlife Trust

Alderney's puffins live on Burhou -there are about 100 pairs there.   The Alderney Wildlife Trust monitors them, using Puffin Cam and surveys.  They count the birds rafting on the water and use cameras to watch the fish being brought back to the burrows.  And they check the burrows at the end of the reason for evideince of nesting - that gives an idea for how many chicks were produced that year.

To help protect puffins, they created a puffin friendly zone to make sure the birds aren't disturbed in the bay, and to ask boat users to reduce their speed and noise. They also check the rat presence on the cliffs and stacks on the island of Alterney itself.  Hopefully one day they will be able to encourage hte puffins to breed back on Alderney!

Puffin adoptions help the Alderney Wildlife Trust undertake these activities - click here to adopt a Burhou puffin!