Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Bringing Puffins Back
In 1885, hunters took the last Atlantic Puffins from Eastern Egg Rock in Maine's
Muscongus Bay. By the midtwentieth century, puffins remained on only two islands in
American waters, Machias Seal Island and Matinicus Rock, both off the coast of Maine.
Althoughpuffinscontinuedtodowellonmorenorthernislands,theydidn'trecolonize
theirhistoricnestingislandsdespiteprotection.Puffinstendtoreturntotheislandswhere
they were hatched, and once an island has no surviving birds, there are no birds to return
to it.
In 1973, Dr. Stephen Kress started an experimental project, sponsored by the National
Audubon Society, to return Atlantic Puffins to Eastern Egg Rock by raising young birds
in burrows on the island. Between 1973 and 1986, 954 young puffins were transplanted
fromNewfoundlandtoEastern EggRock.Theyoungpuffinswererearedinartificial sod
burrows for about one month. Audubon biologists placed handfuls of vitamin-fortified
fishintheirburrowseachday,ineffecttakingtheplaceofparentpuffins,and914ofthese
successfully fledged, flying to the ocean to spend the next few years. It takes a minimum
of two to three years for young puffins to return to their islands to breed, and some of
these puffins began returning to Eastern Egg Rock in June of 1977.
In 1984, National Audubon and the Canadian Wildlife Service began a similar puffin
restoration project at Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge in outer Penobscot Bay. In
2008, thanks to Project Puffin, 101 puffin pairs were found nesting at Eastern Egg Rock
and375pairswerecountedatSealIslandNWR.Thenumbersareconsideredminimums,
as Maine puffins nest in hidden burrows under boulders and are hard to count.
The restoration of Atlantic Puffins to U.S. coastal islands is a wonderful case study in
how commitment and innovative action can bring a lost population back.
