Fratercula arctica

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Habitat and Ecology

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Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	AVES	CHARADRIIFORMES	ALCIDAE

Scientific Name:

Fratercula arctica

Species Authority:

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Common Name/s:

English

–

Atlantic Puffin, Puffin

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:

Least Concern ver 3.1

Year Assessed:

2009

Assessor/s:

BirdLife International

Reviewer/s:

Bird, J., Butchart, S.

Justification:
This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

History:

2008	–	Least Concern
2004	–	Least Concern

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	The Atlantic Puffin can be found throughout the North Atlantic Ocean, from north-west Greenland (to Denmark) to the coastline of Newfoundland (Canada) in the west, and from north Norway down to the Canary Islands, Spain in the east²¹.
Countries:	Native: Algeria; Belgium; Canada; Denmark; Faroe Islands; France; Germany; Gibraltar; Greenland; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Morocco; Netherlands; Norway; Portugal; Russian Federation; Saint Pierre and Miquelon; Spain; Svalbard and Jan Mayen; Sweden; Tunisia; United Kingdom; United States Vagrant: Austria; Bermuda; Croatia; Finland; Hungary; Malta; Montenegro; Poland; Russian Federation; Serbia Present - origin uncertain: Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania; Monaco; Western Sahara
Range Map:	Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	Behaviour Atlantic Puffins are pursuit-divers that catch most of their prey within 30 m of the water surface¹. They are capable of diving to 60 m, although they usually forage at depths less than 30 m^1,2. Birds gather on the water around nesting sites, sometimes for several days, before taking up residence on land³. They are frequently kleptoparasitised by Kittiwakes⁴. Breeding females make a greater contribution to feeding chicks than do males, whereas males spend a greater proportion of time at the breeding burrow⁵. Diet They prey on 'forage' species, including juvenile pelagic fishes, such as herring Clupea harengus, juvenile and adult capelin Mallotus villosus, and sandeel Ammodytes spp.⁸. At times, they also prey on juvenile demersal fishes, such as gadids^7,9,10. Sandeels usually form the majority of the prey fed to chicks^{10,11,12,13,14}, and many chicks starve during periods of low sandeel abundance¹⁰, although there are exceptions, such as at Skomer Island in 1969 when sprat made up the majority of the diet fed to chicks¹⁴. Foraging range This is a relatively wide-ranging species. When feeding chicks, birds generally forage within 10 km of their colony, but may range as far as 50 to 100 km or more^6,7. A boat transect run on one day in 1970 found that 85% of all birds seen were concentrated within just 3 km of the colony³, but other studies have found peaks in the density of foraging birds at up to 40 km distance from the colony^3,15,16,17. Similarly, surveys at the Isle of May, Scotland, suggest that birds forage close to the breeding colony, but also at other sites up to 40 km away ^3,18. Various studies^3,14,19,20, based on different breeding colonies, have estimated the theoretical maximum foraging radius at anywhere from 32 km¹⁴ to 200 km²⁰..
Systems:	Terrestrial; Marine

Habitat and Ecology:

Behaviour Atlantic Puffins are pursuit-divers that catch most of their prey within 30 m of the water surface¹. They are capable of diving to 60 m, although they usually forage at depths less than 30 m^1,2. Birds gather on the water around nesting sites, sometimes for several days, before taking up residence on land³. They are frequently kleptoparasitised by Kittiwakes⁴. Breeding females make a greater contribution to feeding chicks than do males, whereas males spend a greater proportion of time at the breeding burrow⁵. Diet They prey on 'forage' species, including juvenile pelagic fishes, such as herring Clupea harengus, juvenile and adult capelin Mallotus villosus, and sandeel Ammodytes spp.⁸. At times, they also prey on juvenile demersal fishes, such as gadids^7,9,10. Sandeels usually form the majority of the prey fed to chicks^{10,11,12,13,14}, and many chicks starve during periods of low sandeel abundance¹⁰, although there are exceptions, such as at Skomer Island in 1969 when sprat made up the majority of the diet fed to chicks¹⁴. Foraging range This is a relatively wide-ranging species. When feeding chicks, birds generally forage within 10 km of their colony, but may range as far as 50 to 100 km or more^6,7. A boat transect run on one day in 1970 found that 85% of all birds seen were concentrated within just 3 km of the colony³, but other studies have found peaks in the density of foraging birds at up to 40 km distance from the colony^3,15,16,17. Similarly, surveys at the Isle of May, Scotland, suggest that birds forage close to the breeding colony, but also at other sites up to 40 km away ^3,18. Various studies^3,14,19,20, based on different breeding colonies, have estimated the theoretical maximum foraging radius at anywhere from 32 km¹⁴ to 200 km²⁰..

Systems:

Terrestrial; Marine

Citation:	BirdLife International 2009. Fratercula arctica. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 07 February 2012.
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