News > St Kilda puffins hit by food shortages and climate change
St Kilda puffins hit by food shortages and climate change
06/08/2007
News from St Kilda, a dual world heritage site off the west coast of Scotland, shows that seabirds on Europe’s largest colony are suffering from food shortages.
Puffins have had a particularly bad year with barely 40 chicks raised for every 100 eggs laid. This is only half of what is normally expected. The chicks are also severely malnourished with a very low average weight.
Sarah Money, the NTS seabird ranger on the islands, said: “The chicks are just dying of starvation, with hundreds of emaciated bodies lying around outside the burrows. Since July, the parents have been bringing back mainly pipefish, which the chicks can’t swallow. Many of the burrows contain piles of uneaten, rotting pipefish.”
The normal food of puffins and many other seabirds are sandeels and young herring or sprats, which are nutritious and rich in oil. Pipefish, in contrast, are long and bony and are very difficult for the chicks to swallow. Even if they do manage to stomach them they provide only poor nutrition. Before 2001, snake pipefish were rarely seen in Scottish waters but have been becoming increasingly common in recent years. It is feared that this is another symptom of climate change as they are a southern species that have been extending their range northwards.
In contrast, guillemots, which had a poor year in Shetland, have done relatively well on St Kilda, with reasonable chick survival. They breed significantly earlier than puffins and the parents were able to find enough other food for their chicks. By the time that the pipefish became abundant in July their chicks were close to fledging.
On Canna, which was the scene of a successful rat eradication programme in 2006, several of the species that had suffered from rat predation in the past, notably shags and razorbills, have continued to grow in numbers. However, even here, the increase in numbers of pipefish has been seen for the first time with the kittiwakes being particularly badly affected. Bob Swann, who has been studying the seabirds on Canna for over 30 years, said: “We have never seen this before. The kittiwake parents have been bringing pipefish back for their chicks which have been dying in large numbers.”
Over on the east coast, at St Abbs Head National Nature Reserve, NTS ranger, Kevin Rideout has been seeing a similar pattern: “In recent weeks adult kittiwakes have been trying to feed pipefish to their chicks and final productivity has been very low. We are getting only one chick raised for every 8 nests.”
Richard Luxmoore, Head of Nature Conservation for NTS said “We are now experiencing major changes in the sea that were quite unpredicted. Shifts in plankton populations and a reduction in sandeels have been relatively well studied but nobody foresaw the invasion of the snake pipefish or the dramatic effect it would have on our seabirds. In an ecosystem as complex as the sea, the major disruption caused by climate change can have a huge impact on humans and wildlife alike.”
Sarah Money, the NTS seabird ranger on the islands, said: “The chicks are just dying of starvation, with hundreds of emaciated bodies lying around outside the burrows. Since July, the parents have been bringing back mainly pipefish, which the chicks can’t swallow. Many of the burrows contain piles of uneaten, rotting pipefish.”
The normal food of puffins and many other seabirds are sandeels and young herring or sprats, which are nutritious and rich in oil. Pipefish, in contrast, are long and bony and are very difficult for the chicks to swallow. Even if they do manage to stomach them they provide only poor nutrition. Before 2001, snake pipefish were rarely seen in Scottish waters but have been becoming increasingly common in recent years. It is feared that this is another symptom of climate change as they are a southern species that have been extending their range northwards.
In contrast, guillemots, which had a poor year in Shetland, have done relatively well on St Kilda, with reasonable chick survival. They breed significantly earlier than puffins and the parents were able to find enough other food for their chicks. By the time that the pipefish became abundant in July their chicks were close to fledging.
On Canna, which was the scene of a successful rat eradication programme in 2006, several of the species that had suffered from rat predation in the past, notably shags and razorbills, have continued to grow in numbers. However, even here, the increase in numbers of pipefish has been seen for the first time with the kittiwakes being particularly badly affected. Bob Swann, who has been studying the seabirds on Canna for over 30 years, said: “We have never seen this before. The kittiwake parents have been bringing pipefish back for their chicks which have been dying in large numbers.”
Over on the east coast, at St Abbs Head National Nature Reserve, NTS ranger, Kevin Rideout has been seeing a similar pattern: “In recent weeks adult kittiwakes have been trying to feed pipefish to their chicks and final productivity has been very low. We are getting only one chick raised for every 8 nests.”
Richard Luxmoore, Head of Nature Conservation for NTS said “We are now experiencing major changes in the sea that were quite unpredicted. Shifts in plankton populations and a reduction in sandeels have been relatively well studied but nobody foresaw the invasion of the snake pipefish or the dramatic effect it would have on our seabirds. In an ecosystem as complex as the sea, the major disruption caused by climate change can have a huge impact on humans and wildlife alike.”
