What could be more alarming than seeing over 35,000 drop of the Puffins’ numbers in just five years! Now with the latest satellite navigation technology, these birds from the Isle of May and Farne Islands off the Northumberland Coast can now render information regarding their decrease.
Very little has been known about the birds’ reaction to climate change, pollution controls and how their natural cycle of life. But with the new sat-nav systems to be fitted to around 30 puffins, any retrieved information from the GPS data on the birds should give many clues and answers. The tags are similar to tom-tom devices for vehicles and it stores back-data and then retrieves the tag.
Apart from the usual GPS tags, the birds will also be fitted with time-depth recorders for their diving patterns and reactions to sea temperatures. Scientists are also hoping to get a view of the puffins’ feeding grounds and other areas where they are exposed to get any indication of its effect on the untimely deaths of the birds. The sat-nav will also collect data particularly on the sand eels which are the puffins’ main food source, and how the eels’ migration to the cooler waters has been a huge detriment to the new diet of the birds. Also, the system will look into why the puffins are not returning to the islands for breeding and to nest, and if indeed their winter activities are largely to question about their fast disappearance.
The sat-nav will cover all aspects of how puffins float, swim and dive for food, and return to land during their nesting season, and data retrieved will be processed at the Newcastle University. Scientists are hoping they will soon have the answers and provide the public with the latest developments of the Puffins population decline.
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Telegraph

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