1 00:00:20,220 --> 00:00:23,160 Jane: This is But Why, a Podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont 2 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:26,865 Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. And today, I'm somewhere very 3 00:00:26,865 --> 00:00:30,225 special. I'm in southern Iceland. Now, if you don't know 4 00:00:30,225 --> 00:00:33,525 Iceland, it's a big island country in the North Atlantic 5 00:00:33,525 --> 00:00:36,705 Ocean, and we're on the Westman Islands, which is home to the 6 00:00:36,705 --> 00:00:40,725 world's largest colony of Atlantic puffins, and many of 7 00:00:40,725 --> 00:00:44,385 them are actually right behind me now. They're nesting right 8 00:00:44,385 --> 00:00:48,090 now. They've burrowed into the hillside, and their eggs have 9 00:00:48,090 --> 00:00:52,050 actually hatched. Puffins mate for life, and so each pair has 10 00:00:52,050 --> 00:00:55,530 laid one egg earlier in the spring, and these eggs are just 11 00:00:55,530 --> 00:00:58,530 hatching, or have hatched now, and the little puffin babies 12 00:00:58,530 --> 00:01:01,770 called pufflings are deep in their burrows so they don't get 13 00:01:01,770 --> 00:01:06,270 eaten by gulls. Later in the summer, they'll fly out, kind of 14 00:01:06,330 --> 00:01:10,095 fling themselves off this cliffside and go out to sea. 15 00:01:10,335 --> 00:01:14,175 Puffins spend most of the time each year out to sea, and they 16 00:01:14,175 --> 00:01:17,835 only come back and get their feet on land when it's time to 17 00:01:17,835 --> 00:01:21,735 nest. So these puffins are here for a couple of months, and 18 00:01:21,795 --> 00:01:26,655 they're very cute, but they're also really fascinating birds. 19 00:01:26,655 --> 00:01:31,635 Their beaks are so beautiful and dynamic, although not all the 20 00:01:31,635 --> 00:01:37,140 time, and they have this really sort of charismatic way about 21 00:01:37,140 --> 00:01:40,500 them that people love. So we're going to learn all about puffins 22 00:01:40,500 --> 00:01:43,680 and answer all of your puffin questions in today's episode. 23 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:56,200 Hey, it's me back in Vermont now. We recorded that 24 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:59,380 introduction back in June when we were on one of the most 25 00:01:59,380 --> 00:02:04,240 exciting field trips But Why has ever gone on: a trip to Iceland! 26 00:02:04,780 --> 00:02:07,825 We decided to go to Iceland because it's a remarkable 27 00:02:07,825 --> 00:02:11,485 country where we could answer a lot of questions you've sent us 28 00:02:11,485 --> 00:02:14,905 over the years on a lot of different topics. Iceland is 29 00:02:14,905 --> 00:02:18,565 known for having really remarkable geological features, 30 00:02:18,865 --> 00:02:22,525 a landscape that is fascinating and always changing. So we have 31 00:02:22,525 --> 00:02:25,945 upcoming episodes about glaciers and volcanoes that we recorded 32 00:02:25,945 --> 00:02:29,485 in Iceland. We're also doing a horse episode featuring the 33 00:02:29,485 --> 00:02:33,130 Icelandic horse, a breed known for its friendliness and ability 34 00:02:33,130 --> 00:02:36,970 to survive in harsh conditions. And we made a lot of videos 35 00:02:36,970 --> 00:02:39,130 while we were there that we've started publishing on our 36 00:02:39,130 --> 00:02:42,850 YouTube channel, But Why Kids. And I hope you and your adults 37 00:02:42,850 --> 00:02:46,270 can check those out. They include questions like: Why does 38 00:02:46,330 --> 00:02:50,770 Iceland have so many volcanoes? What is a glacier? How does a 39 00:02:50,770 --> 00:02:56,455 geyser explode? And why is Iceland green and Greenland icy? 40 00:02:56,935 --> 00:03:00,235 We're also making a video all about puffins from our visit to 41 00:03:00,235 --> 00:03:03,955 the world's largest colony of Atlantic puffins, and that's 42 00:03:03,955 --> 00:03:08,455 what our episode is about today, these remarkable birds. But 43 00:03:08,515 --> 00:03:11,755 here's the thing. We were hoping to be able to record an 44 00:03:11,755 --> 00:03:14,995 interview while we were in Iceland with a researcher who 45 00:03:14,995 --> 00:03:19,360 has spent his career studying puffins, but he was too busy... 46 00:03:19,780 --> 00:03:23,860 with the puffins. The puffin babies had just hatched when we 47 00:03:23,860 --> 00:03:27,040 arrived, and he was out looking in burrows, tagging birds and 48 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:31,360 collecting data, so we missed him by a day or two. That's 49 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:35,020 frustrating. But sometimes flexibility is the name of the 50 00:03:35,020 --> 00:03:38,500 game. And we pivoted to interview a different researcher 51 00:03:38,500 --> 00:03:41,725 who knows all about these fascinating creatures, and he 52 00:03:41,725 --> 00:03:43,645 was much closer to where we are now. 53 00:03:43,900 --> 00:03:47,980 Don Lyons: I am Don Lyons. I'm Director of Conservation Science 54 00:03:47,980 --> 00:03:51,220 for the National Audubon Society's Seabird Institute. 55 00:03:51,660 --> 00:03:54,660 Jane: The seabird Institute is based in Maine, the state 56 00:03:54,660 --> 00:03:58,800 farthest north and east in the United States. Maine has a lot 57 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:03,240 of coastline. Here's some trivia for you. If you could drive up 58 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:06,480 the main coastline in a straight line, well, maybe not even 59 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:09,780 drive. Like, let's say you were flying like a bird from bottom 60 00:04:09,780 --> 00:04:13,560 to top, keeping the line between the ocean and the land right 61 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:18,945 below you, you would travel about 228 miles. But if you were 62 00:04:18,945 --> 00:04:23,265 to get in a boat and motor in and out of every cove and around 63 00:04:23,265 --> 00:04:26,865 all the cliffs and peninsulas that jut out and the inlets that 64 00:04:26,865 --> 00:04:31,005 stretch into the land and made a loop around every island that 65 00:04:31,005 --> 00:04:34,065 counts as part of Maine, do you know how far you'd have to 66 00:04:34,065 --> 00:04:41,790 travel? 3,478 miles. That's more than the coastline of 67 00:04:41,790 --> 00:04:46,050 California. That also means there are a lot of places to 68 00:04:46,050 --> 00:04:50,070 observe seabirds and to see how they behave, and a lot of 69 00:04:50,070 --> 00:04:55,350 potential locations for seabirds to rest, nest and find food. So 70 00:04:55,350 --> 00:04:58,230 it's a great place for Don Lyons to do his job. 71 00:04:58,230 --> 00:05:04,095 Don Lyons: My job is super fun. I get to work with birds all 72 00:05:04,095 --> 00:05:10,575 day, year round. I'm a scientist. What I... I call 73 00:05:10,575 --> 00:05:15,495 myself an avian ecologist, "avian" meaning birds, and 74 00:05:15,555 --> 00:05:19,395 "ecologist" meaning I'm mostly interested in how birds interact 75 00:05:19,395 --> 00:05:22,815 with their environment, with other species, like the species 76 00:05:22,815 --> 00:05:27,720 they eat, or the species that eat them, or other aspects, 77 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:31,620 weather, climate, other aspects of the environment that they 78 00:05:31,620 --> 00:05:31,980 encounter. 79 00:05:31,980 --> 00:05:35,160 Jane: But it sounds really quiet where you are right now. You're 80 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:36,120 not with the birds. 81 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:41,280 Don Lyons: That's right. I'm in an office today, sadly, but I 82 00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:48,120 get to spend a lot of time out on islands, ocean Islands, where 83 00:05:48,420 --> 00:05:52,440 the group of birds that I like to work with, seabirds, 84 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:58,140 typically nest. And they nest in colonies, in big groups all 85 00:05:58,140 --> 00:06:03,225 together. They're very social. They like to nest together, and 86 00:06:03,405 --> 00:06:07,005 those can be very noisy places. Birds do a lot of talking to one 87 00:06:07,005 --> 00:06:10,845 another, and also smelly places. Birds, when they're all 88 00:06:10,845 --> 00:06:13,845 concentrated in one place, can produce a lot of bird poop. 89 00:06:13,845 --> 00:06:17,745 Jane: So you've had to get used to the smell of bird poop in 90 00:06:17,745 --> 00:06:18,465 your workplace. 91 00:06:18,465 --> 00:06:22,725 Don Lyons: That is right. But most of the time those islands 92 00:06:22,725 --> 00:06:27,450 are, you know, out in the ocean, far from the coast, and so 93 00:06:27,450 --> 00:06:30,090 there's usually a pretty good breeze, which helps carry that, 94 00:06:30,090 --> 00:06:31,110 that smell away. 95 00:06:32,190 --> 00:06:35,970 Jane: So the specific sea bird we want to talk with you about 96 00:06:35,970 --> 00:06:38,310 today is a bird called the puffin. 97 00:06:38,670 --> 00:06:42,870 Ace: Hello. My name is Ace. I am eight years old. I live in 98 00:06:42,870 --> 00:06:47,370 Denver, Colorado, and my question is, what are puffins? 99 00:06:47,415 --> 00:06:49,575 Jane: What are puffins? 100 00:06:49,840 --> 00:06:52,300 Don Lyons: Ah, well, that's a good question. Coming from 101 00:06:52,300 --> 00:06:55,480 someone in Colorado, you've probably never seen a puffin 102 00:06:55,480 --> 00:07:01,000 before. So puffins, they are seabirds. So they spend most of 103 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:05,740 their time out in the sea, in the ocean. They eat fish. They 104 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:10,300 dive underwater. They can swim underwater with their wings. And 105 00:07:10,300 --> 00:07:15,265 they catch small fish, maybe two or three inches long, or maybe 106 00:07:15,385 --> 00:07:21,505 five centimeters long, with their bill, which is their beak. 107 00:07:21,925 --> 00:07:25,405 They catch those while they're underwater, and they they can 108 00:07:25,405 --> 00:07:28,345 eat them right then underwater even, or they can bring them to 109 00:07:28,345 --> 00:07:32,425 the surface and swallow them there. And they only come to 110 00:07:32,425 --> 00:07:39,310 land when they're going to nest. So they make nest for three 111 00:07:39,310 --> 00:07:44,950 months out of the year, maybe middle of summer, and that's the 112 00:07:44,950 --> 00:07:48,310 only time they ever set foot on land. The rest of the time 113 00:07:48,310 --> 00:07:51,670 they're out flying around the ocean, or swimming on the 114 00:07:51,670 --> 00:07:55,450 surface of the ocean or diving underwater to catch fish. 115 00:07:55,720 --> 00:07:59,020 Jane: Don told us there are actually four different species 116 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:02,980 of puffins, and they all live in the northern half of the world, 117 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:07,540 the northern hemisphere. By the way, penguins, by contrast, all 118 00:08:07,540 --> 00:08:12,760 live in the southern hemisphere. Three types of puffins live in 119 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:16,900 the northern Pacific Ocean: the horned puffin, the tufted 120 00:08:16,900 --> 00:08:20,785 puffin, and something called the rhinoceros auklet, which I had 121 00:08:20,785 --> 00:08:24,385 never heard of. That's a type of Puffin with a little horn, like 122 00:08:24,385 --> 00:08:27,445 a rhinoceros's horn on the top of its beak, right where its 123 00:08:27,445 --> 00:08:31,945 beak comes out of its face. But the most famous puffin is the 124 00:08:31,945 --> 00:08:34,525 one that lives in the North Atlantic Ocean. 125 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:38,320 Don Lyons: The Atlantic puffin, which nests in the North 126 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:44,080 Atlantic Ocean from here in Maine in the US, all the way 127 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:48,400 across the North Atlantic in Canada and Iceland and the 128 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:54,280 United Kingdom, even into Norway. And so they're, they're 129 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:56,080 an Atlantic puffin species. 130 00:08:56,320 --> 00:08:59,065 Jane: Atlantic puffins are what we are mostly going to talk 131 00:08:59,065 --> 00:09:03,685 about today. These are small sea birds, a little heavier, but 132 00:09:03,685 --> 00:09:07,285 about the same length as a pigeon. But puffins don't walk 133 00:09:07,285 --> 00:09:10,585 like pigeons. When they're on land, they sort of stand up and 134 00:09:10,585 --> 00:09:14,485 waddle, kind of similar to the way a penguin walks. They have 135 00:09:14,485 --> 00:09:18,265 black backs and white fronts. The top of their heads are 136 00:09:18,265 --> 00:09:22,270 black, and they have big white cheek patches. And then they 137 00:09:22,270 --> 00:09:26,110 have these really bright orange feet, an orange and black 138 00:09:26,110 --> 00:09:30,310 triangle over their eyes, and beautiful black orange and white 139 00:09:30,550 --> 00:09:34,450 beaks. Sometimes these birds are called the parrots or the clowns 140 00:09:34,450 --> 00:09:34,990 of the sea. 141 00:09:35,260 --> 00:09:39,580 Hazel: My name is Hazel. I live in Gilbert, Arizona. I'm eight 142 00:09:39,580 --> 00:09:42,700 years old. Why are puffins' beaks so colorful? 143 00:09:42,900 --> 00:09:46,020 Don Lyons: That's great question, Hazel. So a lot of 144 00:09:46,020 --> 00:09:50,040 times when animals are colorful, they're, they're trying to 145 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:53,640 convey information, or communicate information. With 146 00:09:53,700 --> 00:09:59,040 puffins, that's true, and often what they're communicating is 147 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:03,180 how old they are. And whether they're old enough to nest. So 148 00:10:03,180 --> 00:10:09,585 when a puffin is a chick or just fledges and takes off into the 149 00:10:09,585 --> 00:10:14,505 world on its own, their bill is dark, kind of black, grayish 150 00:10:14,505 --> 00:10:21,045 black, and it stays that color for a while. They often wait 151 00:10:21,045 --> 00:10:25,905 until they're five or six years old before they nest, which is 152 00:10:25,905 --> 00:10:31,890 pretty unusual for birds. And so they spend their second, third, 153 00:10:31,890 --> 00:10:37,830 fourth, fifth year of life not nesting, but they start to look 154 00:10:37,890 --> 00:10:42,570 a little more like an adult puffin each year. That bill 155 00:10:42,570 --> 00:10:47,490 becomes more colorful. It becomes thicker top to bottom, 156 00:10:47,850 --> 00:10:52,455 and it has ridges that kind of run vertically from top to 157 00:10:52,455 --> 00:10:57,495 bottom. So that, that colorful bill that we were also impressed 158 00:10:57,495 --> 00:11:02,415 with and catches our eye really well, it develops over time, and 159 00:11:02,415 --> 00:11:07,155 really communicates that an individual puffin is old enough 160 00:11:07,155 --> 00:11:07,875 to nest. 161 00:11:07,995 --> 00:11:10,095 Jane: And when you say old enough to nest, you mean old 162 00:11:10,095 --> 00:11:11,835 enough to mate and have babies. 163 00:11:12,020 --> 00:11:18,080 Don Lyons: That's right, yeah. So puffins will find a mate, and 164 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:23,300 often they mate for a long time, if not for life. The female 165 00:11:23,300 --> 00:11:28,520 puffin will lay just one egg per year, but none of that starts 166 00:11:28,580 --> 00:11:30,800 until they're 5, 6, 7, years old. 167 00:11:31,100 --> 00:11:35,465 Jane: When they are too young to nest, do they still come onto 168 00:11:35,465 --> 00:11:39,245 land for those summer months? Or are they out to sea for four or 169 00:11:39,245 --> 00:11:39,965 five years? 170 00:11:40,020 --> 00:11:42,780 Don Lyons: Yeah, nice follow up question. Most of the time, 171 00:11:42,780 --> 00:11:46,680 these young birds are out in the ocean. They will come to 172 00:11:46,680 --> 00:11:51,060 colonies sometimes late in the summer. They may just swim 173 00:11:51,060 --> 00:11:54,900 around the island. They may get up and land on the island a 174 00:11:54,900 --> 00:11:58,860 little bit, and they spend some of that time socializing, 175 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:03,465 getting to know other young puffins, but also studying the 176 00:12:03,465 --> 00:12:08,205 colony. Was that colony a place where lots of baby puffins were 177 00:12:08,205 --> 00:12:12,705 raised that year? You know, and if so, maybe that's a good place 178 00:12:12,705 --> 00:12:15,645 for that puffin to think about nesting themselves when they're 179 00:12:15,645 --> 00:12:16,065 old enough. 180 00:12:16,065 --> 00:12:18,585 Jane: Wow, that's fascinating. Can you imagine, you know, 181 00:12:18,585 --> 00:12:23,205 you're out by yourself in the ocean for 12 months, unless you 182 00:12:23,205 --> 00:12:27,210 come in to say hey to everybody else who's there. And otherwise, 183 00:12:27,270 --> 00:12:29,670 puffins are pretty solitary, right? They're just by 184 00:12:29,670 --> 00:12:32,310 themselves, bobbing out in the ocean and catching fish. 185 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:36,380 Don Lyons: Yeah, they really don't socialize much that we 186 00:12:36,380 --> 00:12:40,640 know of away from the colony. They probably see other puffins, 187 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:44,660 and they go to similar places or the same places to find food, 188 00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:49,040 but we think they're mainly going there to find food, not 189 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:55,280 really to make friends or possibly find a mate. And we 190 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:59,285 know that birds that are already old enough to be nesting, the 191 00:12:59,345 --> 00:13:02,465 male and female, even though they spend every, you know, 192 00:13:02,465 --> 00:13:06,005 every summer together working to raise a chick, during the 193 00:13:06,005 --> 00:13:10,505 winter, they split up and they they they're not anywhere 194 00:13:10,505 --> 00:13:12,905 particularly close to one another during the winter. 195 00:13:13,140 --> 00:13:16,920 Jane: So they're not meeting up in the middle of the winter time 196 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:19,560 to ask each other Reuben's question... 197 00:13:19,780 --> 00:13:22,540 Reuben: I'm nine years old. I'm from Savannah, Georgia. Where do 198 00:13:22,540 --> 00:13:24,160 birds go in a lightning storm? 199 00:13:24,580 --> 00:13:26,500 Jane: They're not like, hey did you see that lightning? How did 200 00:13:26,500 --> 00:13:27,460 you live through that? 201 00:13:29,340 --> 00:13:32,760 Don Lyons: They don't get to consult their partners on kind 202 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:35,880 of get some advice or some thoughts or brainstorm how to 203 00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:39,300 solve problems. Most of the time they do that on their own. 204 00:13:39,300 --> 00:13:42,600 Jane: So how do they survive and where do they go in a lightning 205 00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:43,020 storm? 206 00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:45,640 Don Lyons: Puffins are lucky. They don't stick up out of the 207 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:49,600 water much, so they're not a very high target for a lightning 208 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:54,760 bolt. Oftentimes, the waves are much, are higher than a puffin 209 00:13:54,820 --> 00:13:59,620 will stick out of the water. So that's one way they avoid the 210 00:13:59,620 --> 00:14:04,180 risk of getting struck by lightning. They probably also 211 00:14:04,180 --> 00:14:08,725 see storms coming. They're probably pretty good at 212 00:14:08,725 --> 00:14:12,625 predicting the weather based on just what they see around them. 213 00:14:12,685 --> 00:14:15,865 You know, not, not what's going to happen tomorrow, but you 214 00:14:15,865 --> 00:14:20,365 know, when they see a dark cloud in the afternoon, they probably 215 00:14:20,365 --> 00:14:26,785 can fly away from that or around it and avoid a bad storm, to 216 00:14:26,845 --> 00:14:30,850 kind of reduce the chance that they get exposed to a lightning 217 00:14:30,850 --> 00:14:31,150 storm. 218 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:35,140 Jane: Birds can get hit by lightning. It's not common, and 219 00:14:35,140 --> 00:14:38,380 there hasn't been much research done on it. But there have been 220 00:14:38,380 --> 00:14:41,980 accounts of people seeing birds get struck by lightning, and 221 00:14:41,980 --> 00:14:45,460 sometimes a bird might be taking shelter in a tree that gets hit 222 00:14:45,460 --> 00:14:48,880 by lightning. Unfortunately, that's usually not good for the 223 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:53,560 bird. But again, it seems to be pretty rare. Let's talk a little 224 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:56,365 bit about what puffins do when they're on land. 225 00:14:56,605 --> 00:15:00,745 Ellie: Hi, my name's Ellie. I'm four years old and I live in 226 00:15:00,745 --> 00:15:05,965 Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Why do puffins live underground? 227 00:15:06,445 --> 00:15:11,725 Bernie: Hi, my name is Bernie. I am six years old. I live in 228 00:15:11,725 --> 00:15:17,530 Woodinville, Washington. Why do puffins live in within little 229 00:15:17,650 --> 00:15:24,490 holes in hills that are kind of little and that are kind of a 230 00:15:24,490 --> 00:15:25,990 medium sized hole? 231 00:15:26,980 --> 00:15:29,740 Don Lyons: Yeah, so great questions. You guys already know 232 00:15:29,740 --> 00:15:35,680 a lot about puffins. Yeah. So puffins are kind of an unusual 233 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:40,900 bird in that they nest underground, and so they don't 234 00:15:40,900 --> 00:15:44,020 spend all their lives underground, right? They're out 235 00:15:44,020 --> 00:15:48,925 on the ocean for most of the year, but when they come to an 236 00:15:48,925 --> 00:15:53,845 island to nest, they will look for a spot where they can either 237 00:15:53,845 --> 00:16:00,745 dig a hole in dirt, which we call a burrow, or if an island 238 00:16:00,745 --> 00:16:05,485 is really rocky, but has some broken up rocks, boulder-sized 239 00:16:05,485 --> 00:16:09,445 rocks, maybe a meter on a side, or two or three feet on a side, 240 00:16:09,865 --> 00:16:13,450 they will look for crevices in those rocks where they can kind 241 00:16:13,450 --> 00:16:19,270 of drop down below the surface, and again, find a kind of safe, 242 00:16:19,270 --> 00:16:24,550 little hidden burrow-like space. They really only put their nests 243 00:16:24,550 --> 00:16:29,770 in these underground places because that protects the egg 244 00:16:29,770 --> 00:16:35,755 and chick and the adults while they're in there from predators. 245 00:16:35,935 --> 00:16:40,255 Like here in North America, bald eagles, really big predatory 246 00:16:40,255 --> 00:16:45,175 birds that are certainly capable of eating the eggs or eating 247 00:16:45,175 --> 00:16:49,675 young chick, or some of those birds, like the eagles, are 248 00:16:49,675 --> 00:16:52,315 capable of eating adult puffins too. 249 00:16:52,315 --> 00:16:56,695 Jane: Some gulls also like to eat puffin babies and puffin 250 00:16:56,695 --> 00:16:57,055 eggs. 251 00:16:57,055 --> 00:17:01,240 Don Lyons: That's right, puffins are generally safe from these 252 00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:05,080 species, these predators, if they, if they find a good burrow 253 00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:12,400 and a pretty deep burrow. Some birds, ravens are an example, 254 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:18,160 will try and dig out birds from earthen burrows. But if the 255 00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:23,665 puffin has dug a burrow really deep, then the raven will 256 00:17:23,665 --> 00:17:25,705 probably give up before it gets there. 257 00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:30,100 Jane: Our team was really lucky. In June, we got to go to Iceland 258 00:17:30,460 --> 00:17:33,400 and do some reporting in Iceland. And one of the places 259 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:37,540 that we went to was the world's largest colony of Atlantic 260 00:17:37,540 --> 00:17:41,320 puffins. And it was amazing to see all of these burrows, which 261 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:43,720 are pretty well hidden. It just sort of looks like a grassy 262 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:48,580 hillside. And the day that we were there, the pufflings, the 263 00:17:48,580 --> 00:17:53,005 baby puffins, had just recently hatched, so the adults were 264 00:17:53,005 --> 00:17:57,505 outside of the burrows, but we couldn't see the pufflings, but 265 00:17:57,985 --> 00:18:01,585 most of the adults were sort of outside keeping guard. They 266 00:18:01,585 --> 00:18:05,005 seemed to be on alert, and there were a lot of gulls and other 267 00:18:05,005 --> 00:18:09,025 bigger birds flying around in great big circles, I guess maybe 268 00:18:09,025 --> 00:18:12,610 just hoping that they could catch sight of a really tasty 269 00:18:12,610 --> 00:18:14,050 little puffin baby, maybe? 270 00:18:14,360 --> 00:18:18,320 Don Lyons: Yeah, it sounds like you had a cool trip to see a 271 00:18:18,380 --> 00:18:25,460 really cool puffin colony. So gulls can have a couple other 272 00:18:25,460 --> 00:18:30,740 sneaky impacts on puffins. When puffins have chicks, once that 273 00:18:30,860 --> 00:18:35,600 egg hatches into a chick, puffins feed the chicks fish and 274 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:40,085 they carry fish back to the burrow. Kind of cross ways in 275 00:18:40,085 --> 00:18:46,745 their bill, in their beak. And so those fish are out there for 276 00:18:46,745 --> 00:18:51,185 anybody to see. We scientists, we take pictures of them, and we 277 00:18:51,185 --> 00:18:54,965 identify the fish that puffins are eating that way. So it's 278 00:18:54,965 --> 00:18:59,165 really neat for a research study question we can understand what 279 00:18:59,165 --> 00:19:03,590 puffin diet is like, what fish are important to puffins, but it 280 00:19:03,590 --> 00:19:10,070 also means that gulls and other species can see those fish, and 281 00:19:10,910 --> 00:19:14,750 a certain number of gulls figure out, hey, I could maybe steal 282 00:19:14,750 --> 00:19:19,490 some of those fish if I caught an adult puffin kind of not 283 00:19:19,490 --> 00:19:24,770 really paying attention, I could swoop in there and maybe bump 284 00:19:24,830 --> 00:19:29,375 the adult puffin around, get it to drop those fish, or maybe 285 00:19:29,375 --> 00:19:33,395 scare the adult puffin into dropping those fish. And so a 286 00:19:33,395 --> 00:19:38,675 lot of the interactions you see there are gulls trying to steal 287 00:19:38,675 --> 00:19:42,815 fish, not actually expecting to get a look at a chick or a 288 00:19:42,815 --> 00:19:47,015 chance at a chick. The chicks are, they're pretty smart, even 289 00:19:47,015 --> 00:19:52,160 though they're very young, and they very rarely come out of the 290 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:58,160 burrow. So and when they do, it's often at night when the 291 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:03,800 gulls are sleeping, not very active. So they generally stay 292 00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:08,720 safe in their little burrow until they're ready to fledge, 293 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:13,085 or leave the island and kind of become independent and kind of 294 00:20:13,085 --> 00:20:14,345 go out in the world on their own. 295 00:20:14,345 --> 00:20:19,145 Jane: Well, that brings us to Sawyer's good question about how 296 00:20:19,145 --> 00:20:21,005 baby puffins learn to fly. 297 00:20:21,005 --> 00:20:24,965 Sawyer: My name is Sawyer, and I am 10 years old. I'm from 298 00:20:24,965 --> 00:20:28,685 Marietta, Georgia. Why do puffins live on such high 299 00:20:28,685 --> 00:20:33,470 cliffs? Why don't the adult puffins carry the baby puffins 300 00:20:33,650 --> 00:20:36,950 instead of letting them jump off the cliffs themselves? 301 00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:40,200 Jane: To get to your question, Sawyer, we first have to 302 00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:43,560 understand a little bit about the body structure of a puffin. 303 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:47,340 Since puffins spend almost all of their lives in the water 304 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:51,540 diving for fish, they need really strong wings for 305 00:20:51,540 --> 00:20:55,620 swimming. Don says most seabirds that spend a lot of time 306 00:20:55,620 --> 00:20:59,820 swimming have short wings. Penguins are kind of the extreme 307 00:20:59,820 --> 00:21:03,645 example of this. Their wings have become so specialized for 308 00:21:03,645 --> 00:21:07,185 swimming that they can't even fly at all anymore. Puffins are 309 00:21:07,185 --> 00:21:10,965 actually really fast flyers, but they do have relatively short 310 00:21:10,965 --> 00:21:14,625 wings that help propel them underwater, so they can't soar 311 00:21:14,625 --> 00:21:17,625 around like the gulls we saw patrolling the skies near the 312 00:21:17,625 --> 00:21:19,785 puffin burrows when we visited Iceland. 313 00:21:19,965 --> 00:21:23,070 Don Lyons: Like those gulls, that's exactly right. Or if 314 00:21:23,070 --> 00:21:27,930 people know albatross or vultures or eagles, a lot of 315 00:21:27,930 --> 00:21:34,290 really big birds have really long wings and can soar or glide 316 00:21:34,290 --> 00:21:37,830 through the air. Puffins can't do that. They have to beat their 317 00:21:37,830 --> 00:21:44,610 wings really fast. I've heard, people have tried to measure how 318 00:21:44,610 --> 00:21:47,655 fast they beat their wings. It might be 400 times a minute. 319 00:21:47,655 --> 00:21:47,955 Jane: Wow. 320 00:21:48,380 --> 00:21:50,960 Don Lyons: Which is amazing. It's, it's a little like 321 00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:54,140 hummingbirds, even, how, how hard they have to beat their 322 00:21:54,140 --> 00:22:03,020 wings, just to say airborne. So they nest on high cliffs or kind 323 00:22:03,020 --> 00:22:08,120 of hills on islands, so that they have a lot of space between 324 00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:12,080 them and the water. So when they take off from their nesting 325 00:22:12,125 --> 00:22:16,745 spot, just outside their burrow, they have a lot of time to get 326 00:22:16,745 --> 00:22:20,165 up speed, to flap their wings really hard, and get up speed so 327 00:22:20,165 --> 00:22:24,965 that they are flying, so that they don't just drop and land in 328 00:22:24,965 --> 00:22:31,145 the ocean. The chicks start out... So one reason they, the 329 00:22:31,145 --> 00:22:35,510 adults can't carry them, the chicks when they fledge, they're 330 00:22:35,510 --> 00:22:40,730 almost as big as adults, so it'd be kind of like one of our 331 00:22:40,730 --> 00:22:45,650 parents carrying us around when we finished high school, it 332 00:22:45,650 --> 00:22:48,770 would just be really difficult for the parent to help in that 333 00:22:48,770 --> 00:22:53,930 process. And so those young puffins, the first time they 334 00:22:53,930 --> 00:22:57,815 leave the borough and leave the island, they have not flown 335 00:22:57,815 --> 00:23:04,655 before. They don't have a lot of muscles built up to fly well, so 336 00:23:04,655 --> 00:23:08,015 they often are jumping off cliffs and ending up in the 337 00:23:08,015 --> 00:23:12,095 water. Which is okay. They're good swimmers. They can kind of 338 00:23:12,095 --> 00:23:15,575 paddle away from the island and get their start in life and 339 00:23:15,575 --> 00:23:20,600 start looking for fish to eat right off the bat. But it does 340 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:25,280 mean that almost all puffins like to take off when they start 341 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:26,960 flying from a high spot. 342 00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:30,620 Jane: Imagine being that baby puffin, a puffling, and the 343 00:23:30,620 --> 00:23:33,920 first time you have to try flying, it's in the middle of 344 00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:36,800 the night, and you're not just expected to flap your wings a 345 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:40,400 few times and see how it goes. You're going to have to jump off 346 00:23:40,460 --> 00:23:43,820 a high cliff, and hope you figure it out before you hit the 347 00:23:43,820 --> 00:23:48,320 water. Don says it's not always graceful, but the pufflings 348 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:52,445 figure it out pretty quickly. In the place that we visited, in 349 00:23:52,445 --> 00:23:56,465 Iceland, the Westman Islands, there are a lot of baby puffins 350 00:23:56,465 --> 00:23:59,705 every year. After all, it's the biggest colony of Atlantic 351 00:23:59,705 --> 00:24:02,945 puffins in the world. And sometimes these pufflings get a 352 00:24:02,945 --> 00:24:05,945 little disoriented and turned around when they first try to 353 00:24:05,945 --> 00:24:10,145 fly, so they wind up back on land. People who live on the 354 00:24:10,145 --> 00:24:13,550 main island often scoop up those little babies and take them back 355 00:24:13,550 --> 00:24:17,090 to the cliffs at night and kind of throw them or toss them off 356 00:24:17,090 --> 00:24:20,330 the cliff. It sounds a little alarming, but it's actually 357 00:24:20,330 --> 00:24:24,710 helpful. That's how the babies get off to sea. I wish we had 358 00:24:24,710 --> 00:24:27,950 been there to see that part of the tradition. Coming up, what 359 00:24:28,010 --> 00:24:31,790 are puffins doing right now in the middle of August? And we'll 360 00:24:31,790 --> 00:24:35,435 learn a little bit about puffin conservation in Maine. About 50 361 00:24:35,435 --> 00:24:39,095 years ago, there were almost no puffins there at all, because 362 00:24:39,095 --> 00:24:44,015 they'd been hunted so much and even used in feathered hats. Now 363 00:24:44,015 --> 00:24:46,655 there's a thriving population, the one that Don has been 364 00:24:46,655 --> 00:24:49,055 studying. So stay with us to learn more. 365 00:24:50,495 --> 00:24:54,635 This is But Why, a Podcast for Curious Kids. I'm Jane Lindholm. 366 00:24:54,635 --> 00:24:58,175 And today, we're learning all about puffins. These cute little 367 00:24:58,175 --> 00:25:01,460 seabirds are sometimes called the parrots of the sea. But it 368 00:25:01,460 --> 00:25:04,160 turns out, they're more than just silly looking. They're 369 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:07,820 fascinating. We're learning about them from Don Lyons, the 370 00:25:07,820 --> 00:25:11,600 Director of Conservation Science for an Audubon Society program 371 00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:15,680 called the Seabird Institute in Maine. Don has been answering 372 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:19,100 all of your questions about puffins. We interviewed him on 373 00:25:19,100 --> 00:25:22,985 August 14th, right around the time when all those pufflings 374 00:25:22,985 --> 00:25:24,545 were making their way out to sea. 375 00:25:24,545 --> 00:25:29,225 Don Lyons: Puffins are amazing in that those pufflings, those 376 00:25:29,225 --> 00:25:33,485 fledglings, when they leave the island, they don't get any more 377 00:25:33,485 --> 00:25:36,425 help from their parents the rest of their lives. They're on 378 00:25:36,425 --> 00:25:41,585 their own, which is incredible. They somehow know, they figure 379 00:25:41,585 --> 00:25:47,150 out how to find fish and catch fish without, without the parent 380 00:25:47,150 --> 00:25:48,650 ever showing them how that's done. 381 00:25:48,780 --> 00:25:51,540 Jane: And they'll figure out how to make it back to their nesting 382 00:25:51,540 --> 00:25:54,180 grounds when they are mature and it's time to start having 383 00:25:54,180 --> 00:25:57,480 babies. Puffins don't just hang around near the island where 384 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,180 they were born their whole lives. You know, they often go 385 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:01,440 really far away. 386 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:05,760 Don Lyons: They go where the food is, and that can be 387 00:26:05,940 --> 00:26:10,560 relatively close by, or it can be quite a ways away. The 388 00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:15,405 puffins here in Maine, they often, kind of late summer, they 389 00:26:15,405 --> 00:26:20,265 go north up into the ocean off of Canada, because the food's 390 00:26:20,265 --> 00:26:24,345 really good up there. And so they'll they'll find herring and 391 00:26:24,645 --> 00:26:29,445 sand lance and other forage fish, we call them. And then as 392 00:26:29,445 --> 00:26:33,645 the fall gets colder and we get closer to winter, they start 393 00:26:33,645 --> 00:26:40,170 moving south again. And they may be just a few hundred miles, or 394 00:26:40,770 --> 00:26:45,270 maybe 500 kilometers from the colony where they, where they 395 00:26:45,270 --> 00:26:50,070 were raised during the winter here. A few puffins go further 396 00:26:50,070 --> 00:26:54,750 south, but it's just a few birds that go that far. But other 397 00:26:54,750 --> 00:27:00,855 puffins, other Atlantic puffins from elsewhere, and other of the 398 00:27:00,855 --> 00:27:04,335 Pacific puffins, the puffins that nest out in the Pacific 399 00:27:04,335 --> 00:27:09,015 Ocean, they may go hundreds or thousands of kilometers or miles 400 00:27:09,375 --> 00:27:13,515 southward, usuallym during the winter. So it really all depends 401 00:27:13,515 --> 00:27:15,675 on where they're going to find food. They're really just out 402 00:27:15,675 --> 00:27:16,515 there chasing food. 403 00:27:16,755 --> 00:27:18,975 Jane: And then, when they're adults and it's time to find a 404 00:27:18,975 --> 00:27:22,680 mate and a nesting ground, they can find their way back. Year 405 00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:26,700 after year, they go to the same colony, they find the same mate 406 00:27:26,940 --> 00:27:30,180 and sometimes even the same burrow. That's pretty 407 00:27:30,180 --> 00:27:33,480 impressive, considering they might head out to sea, 500 or a 408 00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,780 thousand miles away for most of the year, and then they can find 409 00:27:36,780 --> 00:27:38,880 their way back to the same tiny island. 410 00:27:39,260 --> 00:27:42,680 Don Lyons: Yeah, it is amazing. It's not something we understand 411 00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:46,760 that well. That part of this process is a bit of a mystery. 412 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:49,880 Jane: Don says they probably have a lot of complex ways of 413 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:53,240 knowing how to do that, including an internal sense of 414 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:57,020 direction that's kind of like a compass, an ability to recognize 415 00:27:57,020 --> 00:28:01,040 their island by sight and familiar landmarks, and possibly 416 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:05,045 a sense of smell that helps them sniff out their colony from any 417 00:28:05,045 --> 00:28:08,525 others. But there are still a lot of unknowns about how 418 00:28:08,525 --> 00:28:12,665 puffins actually do it. It's hard for us humans to understand 419 00:28:12,665 --> 00:28:15,905 it when we can't even tell one puffin from another. 420 00:28:16,020 --> 00:28:20,520 Hi, my name is Michaela. I'm from Barrie, Ontario. I am eight 421 00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:26,760 years old, and my question is, how do you tell them apart from 422 00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:28,020 male and female? 423 00:28:28,140 --> 00:28:32,340 Don Lyons: All puffins look alike. It's kind of amazing. I 424 00:28:32,340 --> 00:28:34,920 can have a puffin in my hand. I can have two puffins in my hand, 425 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,640 one in each hand, and I cannot tell them apart. 426 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:40,140 Jane: Even you! 427 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:45,165 Don Lyons: I cannot tell if one's a male or one's a female. 428 00:28:45,225 --> 00:28:47,865 You know, I can measure them, and I can say, well, this one's 429 00:28:47,865 --> 00:28:50,925 a little bigger than that one, but that's all I got. That's all 430 00:28:50,925 --> 00:28:56,205 I know. The way we do eventually figure that out is we take a 431 00:28:56,205 --> 00:29:00,165 blood sample or pluck a few feathers that have blood in 432 00:29:00,165 --> 00:29:10,050 them, and we take that blood to a laboratory, extract the genes 433 00:29:10,050 --> 00:29:15,450 out of the blood, the DNA out of the blood, and with that DNA, we 434 00:29:15,450 --> 00:29:20,190 can tell whether it's a male or female. So it's amazing that 435 00:29:20,190 --> 00:29:25,935 they can sort that out. But they do, and I'm sure some of that is 436 00:29:26,475 --> 00:29:30,255 how that bill looks. That bill is pretty unique from one bird 437 00:29:30,255 --> 00:29:36,075 to the next, and they can make vocalizations or calls. They can 438 00:29:36,075 --> 00:29:41,955 do a little talking to identify themselves. And I'm sure the 439 00:29:41,955 --> 00:29:45,915 puffins themselves know other traits to tell each other apart. 440 00:29:45,915 --> 00:29:49,020 Jane: All right, I have a couple of rapid fire questions for you. 441 00:29:49,140 --> 00:29:54,300 Sam: My name is Sam. I'm five year old, and I'm from New York. 442 00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:58,920 How long can puffins hold their breaths and do they eat fish? 443 00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:02,160 Jane: Sam Is wondering, how long can puffins hold their breath 444 00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:05,220 and do they eat fish? We know they eat fish. How long can they 445 00:30:05,220 --> 00:30:05,880 hold their breath? 446 00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:09,860 Don Lyons: Puffins, they dive underwater, swim underwater that 447 00:30:09,860 --> 00:30:15,800 can last even two or three minutes. And I bet somebody's 448 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:20,720 curious about how deep they can dive. Most of their dives are 449 00:30:20,780 --> 00:30:27,260 just in the top 50 feet or 15 meters of water, but there are 450 00:30:27,260 --> 00:30:32,165 puffins that we've documented diving as much as 50 meters or 451 00:30:32,225 --> 00:30:38,045 200 feet, which is amazing for a bird that weigh about as much as 452 00:30:38,105 --> 00:30:39,665 a full can of soda. 453 00:30:39,665 --> 00:30:44,285 Juliet: Hello. My name is Juliet. I am four year old, and 454 00:30:44,285 --> 00:30:50,045 I live in Denver, Colorado. How do birds have red feet? 455 00:30:50,345 --> 00:30:53,510 Jane: How do birds, like puffins, have red feet, wonders 456 00:30:53,510 --> 00:30:54,050 Juliet. 457 00:30:54,300 --> 00:30:57,600 Don Lyons: That foot color is probably there because it's 458 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:02,160 another way to signal that a bird is an adult. Puffin chicks 459 00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:06,300 don't have red feet. They're just kind of dark and black or 460 00:31:06,300 --> 00:31:12,180 gray. Most of that foot color is just pigments that the puffins 461 00:31:12,180 --> 00:31:16,980 produce. Much like our skin color varies a lot, or we 462 00:31:16,980 --> 00:31:21,465 produce pigments for our skin. It's not always the same color 463 00:31:21,465 --> 00:31:26,565 in all of us, but that same process produces pigment in the 464 00:31:26,565 --> 00:31:30,525 skin of their legs. But the purpose of that is probably 465 00:31:30,585 --> 00:31:34,725 primarily to let other puffins know that, hey, I'm an adult, I 466 00:31:34,725 --> 00:31:35,925 could be a potential mate. 467 00:31:36,045 --> 00:31:38,985 Jane: Michaela, who asked a question earlier about how we 468 00:31:38,985 --> 00:31:42,270 tell female and male puffins apart, has another question. 469 00:31:42,510 --> 00:31:45,390 Michaela: Why do puffins have that little triangle around 470 00:31:45,390 --> 00:31:45,810 their eye? 471 00:31:45,810 --> 00:31:49,350 Jane: Don says it's similar to both the colorful feet and the 472 00:31:49,350 --> 00:31:53,130 colorful beak, or bill. It signifies that the puffin is an 473 00:31:53,130 --> 00:31:56,970 adult and old enough to mate or have babies, and he says that 474 00:31:56,970 --> 00:32:00,990 triangle also helps identify a puffin as a puffin, because it's 475 00:32:00,990 --> 00:32:04,635 unique to their species. We got another Puffin question from 476 00:32:04,635 --> 00:32:05,175 Logan. 477 00:32:05,780 --> 00:32:08,600 Logan: I'm 11 years old. I live in Mount Martha on the 478 00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:12,500 Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia. Do puffins 479 00:32:12,500 --> 00:32:18,080 have any blubber? And if so, how much of it do they have? 480 00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,540 Jane: Blubber is a specialized type of body fat that many 481 00:32:21,540 --> 00:32:25,380 marine animals like whales and seals have. It not only helps 482 00:32:25,380 --> 00:32:28,860 keep their bodies warm in cold water, but it also helps with 483 00:32:28,860 --> 00:32:32,700 buoyancy, keeping them afloat. While it's usually associated 484 00:32:32,700 --> 00:32:36,900 with marine mammals, penguins have blubber and they are, of 485 00:32:36,900 --> 00:32:41,460 course, birds. Puffins also have a layer of fat that helps 486 00:32:41,460 --> 00:32:45,585 insulate them from the cold sea and cold winds, but it's not 487 00:32:45,585 --> 00:32:49,305 called blubber. I asked Don if there was anything else we 488 00:32:49,305 --> 00:32:50,505 should know about puffins. 489 00:32:50,505 --> 00:32:54,945 Don Lyons: Well, fun fact, puffins carry fish back to their 490 00:32:54,945 --> 00:32:59,025 chicks in their bill, crossways in the bill, they can catch 491 00:32:59,565 --> 00:33:03,225 multiple fish and hold them, and catch another fish and hold 492 00:33:03,225 --> 00:33:07,230 that. And so they're often delivering five to ten fish to 493 00:33:07,230 --> 00:33:12,030 their chicks at a time. But kind of the record that we've heard 494 00:33:12,030 --> 00:33:16,590 about, or that I've heard about, of how many fish can a puffin 495 00:33:16,590 --> 00:33:19,830 and carry is 62. 496 00:33:20,010 --> 00:33:20,910 Jane: No way! 497 00:33:20,970 --> 00:33:23,790 Don Lyons: That's what I'm told! I have not seen the photograph, 498 00:33:23,790 --> 00:33:27,810 but you know, that bill is really designed well to hold 499 00:33:27,810 --> 00:33:32,175 lots of fish. Inside their mouths, they have some ridges 500 00:33:32,235 --> 00:33:38,235 and kind of barbed surfaces that help hold fish. And so they, 501 00:33:38,295 --> 00:33:42,075 they really are designed, you could say, to hold fish, to 502 00:33:42,075 --> 00:33:42,855 carry fish. 503 00:33:43,155 --> 00:33:46,995 Jane: I can barely carry one fish in my mouth, let alone 62, 504 00:33:47,115 --> 00:33:50,535 although I'm tempted to try it tonight. Before we let don go 505 00:33:50,535 --> 00:33:53,640 back to his puffin research, I wanted to know just a little bit 506 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,100 about the work he and his colleagues have been doing in 507 00:33:56,100 --> 00:33:59,880 Maine. Because, you see, puffins were pretty much gone there for 508 00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:00,780 a long time. 509 00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:04,320 Don Lyons: We didn't lose all the puffins, but we were down to 510 00:34:04,380 --> 00:34:08,160 just a handful of puffins on just one island. It may have 511 00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:12,300 been as few as two puffins, we don't know, but really, really 512 00:34:12,300 --> 00:34:16,725 low number, and that happened mostly because people hunted 513 00:34:16,725 --> 00:34:23,085 them for their eggs, for their meat, or their feathers. At one 514 00:34:23,085 --> 00:34:28,125 time, it was high fashion for women to wear feathers on their 515 00:34:28,125 --> 00:34:33,585 hats, or even whole birds on their hats, dead birds. 516 00:34:33,780 --> 00:34:37,200 Jane: About 125 years ago, puffins were nearly gone from 517 00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:41,940 the coast of Maine. But in 1973, just over 50 years ago, 518 00:34:41,940 --> 00:34:44,700 researchers decided they were going to see if they could bring 519 00:34:44,700 --> 00:34:47,940 them back. So they went to puffin colonies along the 520 00:34:47,940 --> 00:34:51,300 Canadian coastline in Newfoundland, and took some 521 00:34:51,300 --> 00:34:53,520 puffin babies from nests there. 522 00:34:53,720 --> 00:34:56,360 Don Lyons: And they took chicks that were about 10 days old. 523 00:34:57,260 --> 00:35:00,800 They stuffed them into a suitcase and put them on a 524 00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:05,300 plane, flew them to Maine, got them on a boat. The boat took 525 00:35:05,300 --> 00:35:08,360 them out to one of these islands, where puffins had 526 00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:14,120 nested 100 years earlier, and people had built burrows, had 527 00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:20,165 dug burrows out of sod, and the pufflings were put in those 528 00:35:20,165 --> 00:35:24,065 burrows and that all happened really fast, like within 24 529 00:35:24,065 --> 00:35:27,605 hours, within a day, all of that was all coordinated ahead of 530 00:35:27,605 --> 00:35:31,445 time, so that when a puffling was grabbed, it got to a new 531 00:35:31,445 --> 00:35:37,565 burrow in Maine in 24 hours or so. Kind of an amazing bit of 532 00:35:37,565 --> 00:35:39,005 travel logistics. 533 00:35:40,190 --> 00:35:43,310 Jane: Personally, I can't help but think about what a confusing 534 00:35:43,310 --> 00:35:46,730 process that might have been for both the pufflings and the adult 535 00:35:46,730 --> 00:35:48,830 parents. But anyway. 536 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:51,840 Don Lyons: Pufflings were brought down for over five years 537 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:56,040 to that island, and in some years that was around 200 538 00:35:56,040 --> 00:36:00,780 pufflings a year. They were hand fed, so there wasn't adult 539 00:36:00,780 --> 00:36:06,900 puffins to feed them. So people got the small fish and gave 540 00:36:06,900 --> 00:36:10,620 those, dropped those fish into the burrows, and the pufflings 541 00:36:10,620 --> 00:36:14,145 would pick them up and eat them. And then the pufflings fledged 542 00:36:14,145 --> 00:36:18,285 from the island. They left the island. They don't normally get 543 00:36:18,285 --> 00:36:21,465 help from their parents after they leave the island so this 544 00:36:21,465 --> 00:36:25,905 strategy could work, and they swam away. 545 00:36:25,905 --> 00:36:29,385 Jane: Remember that puffins don't mature for several years. 546 00:36:29,385 --> 00:36:33,825 So it was unclear if this plan to recolonize Eastern Egg Rock 547 00:36:33,825 --> 00:36:37,410 in Maine was going to work. The scientists decided to put out 548 00:36:37,470 --> 00:36:41,130 decoys, fake puffins, to make it looked like the island was a 549 00:36:41,130 --> 00:36:44,070 good place to mate and raise chicks, and they even played the 550 00:36:44,070 --> 00:36:47,310 sounds of seabirds. So any puffins who were scoping the 551 00:36:47,310 --> 00:36:50,550 island out would think it was a rocking place to be. And you 552 00:36:50,550 --> 00:36:52,170 know what? It worked! 553 00:36:52,180 --> 00:36:55,060 Don Lyons: Within a couple days of those decoys, those first 554 00:36:55,060 --> 00:36:59,860 decoys going out, real puffins landed on the island and started 555 00:36:59,860 --> 00:37:05,260 checking them out. It still took two, three more years before 556 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:09,700 they started nesting. But that did happen. It actually happened 557 00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:15,745 on the, those first fish being carried into a burrow were seen 558 00:37:15,745 --> 00:37:18,205 on July 4th, 1981. 559 00:37:18,205 --> 00:37:22,285 Jane: And today, Don says there are about 3000 puffins nesting 560 00:37:22,285 --> 00:37:24,745 on two restored island colonies. 561 00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:27,300 Don Lyons: But just as importantly, kind of the 562 00:37:27,300 --> 00:37:33,900 techniques, the use of moving the pufflings, the chicks, which 563 00:37:33,900 --> 00:37:39,600 we call translocation, that movement of birds and the use of 564 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:44,880 decoys have now been used for around a third of all the 565 00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:49,545 seabird species in the world, including some species that that 566 00:37:49,545 --> 00:37:55,365 were critically endangered. So I... kind of puffins have been a 567 00:37:55,365 --> 00:37:58,365 situation where, you know, some really good conservation work 568 00:37:58,365 --> 00:38:03,825 for puffins has happened, but also work that has benefited 569 00:38:04,365 --> 00:38:08,865 many more species of seabirds around the world. 570 00:38:08,865 --> 00:38:13,650 Jane: What a great place to end, on a conservation success story. 571 00:38:14,070 --> 00:38:17,370 Thanks to Don Lyons, Director of Conservation Science for the 572 00:38:17,370 --> 00:38:21,690 National Audubon Society's Seabird Institute. And thanks to 573 00:38:21,690 --> 00:38:24,990 all of you for sending us your puffin questions. You can always 574 00:38:24,990 --> 00:38:28,590 send us questions about anything that makes you feel curious and 575 00:38:28,590 --> 00:38:31,950 you want to know more about. Have an adult help you record 576 00:38:31,950 --> 00:38:35,295 you asking your question. 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