Sophisticated tracking devices have transformed wildlife research. They've shown scientists where bluefin tuna swim, how red knots have backtracked to avoid major storms, and when species of all sorts start their migrations.
Now, National Audubon Society researchers have used the devices to get the first clues they need to solve a mystery that has intrigued them for years: Where do puffins go during the winter?
They know that in summer, the birds nest on the Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge, a 65-acre pile of rocks about 21 miles off the coast of Maine. They return each spring to the island, where females lays a single eggs in rock crevices. Once each chick hatches, the parents tends it for about six weeks, and then the chick flys out to sea. The parents follow a few weeks later, spending the next eight months at sea.
But where at sea has remained a mystery. Other than a few spottings, scientists knew little.
In 2009, Audubon researchers affixed tracking devices to the leg bands of eight puffins at the refuge. Unlike devices for larger birds, which can have antennae that transmit information, these smaller devices didn't transmit directly. They had to be recovered from the birds before scientists could get access to the data. It's a tricky business, and scientists had to wait two years before they caught first one bird, then another.
That happened last June. The data from the devices showed that one of the puffins had gone far and wide, from the northern Labrador Sea to warmer waters near Bermuda. In one eight-month period, it flew about 4,800 miles.
“I’ve spent decades helping to restore puffins to their nesting colonies in Maine,” said Steve Kress, Audubon's vice president for bird conservation and one of the researchers. "It is an amazing moment for all of us who work with these birds to have a glimpse into where they go after they leave the islands.”
Kress and researcher Scott Hall presented their findings earlier today at the 39th annual meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group in Turtle Bay, Hawaii.
You can learn more about the project by clicking here.
GreenSpace - her column about how to reduce your carbon footprint in everyday life - appears every other Monday in Health & Science.
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