Iceland Encourages Locals To Throw Baby Puffins Off Cliffs
For residents of Vestmannaeyja, an island located just off the southern coast of Iceland, puffling season is a special time of year. Sanctioned by local officials, the people of the island flock to the cliffsides with baby puffins in hand, eager to throw them over the side of it.
Once baby puffins, called pufflings, reach maturity, they fly from their colony and spend several years at sea before eventually returning to land to breed. Residing in cliffside nests, the pufflings use the light of the moon to guide them out to the ocean. However, due to increased building development on the island’s coastlines, some of the baby puffins get lost and head the wrong way, confusing human-made lights with moonlight.
Puffling Patrol
During puffling season in Vestmannaeyja, it is normal to find baby puffins scattered across town, hiding in crevices and corners. This is when “puffling patrol” is put to work; residents, old and young, head out into the night armed with gloved hands holding flashlights and cardboard boxes poked with holes, ready to snatch up any baby puffins they come across.
According to annual participants, it’s fairly likely to catch up to ten a night. When interviewed by the Smithsonian Magazine, two sisters, Ágústa Ósk Georgsdóttir and Sunna Tórshamar Georgsdóttir, claim they usually catch over 125 baby puffins a season.
Puffins Love Cliffs
Since patrolling is most effective at night, those who catch baby puffins head home and keep them overnight in roomy cardboard boxes. In the morning, the patrollers head out to the cliffsides, and with an underhand technique, the baby puffins are launched off the cliff and towards the ocean. While you technically can just set them down on the edge and wait for them to take off by themselves, locals believe that giving them a helpful toss encourages them to fly out right away.
Tossing Babies To Save A Species
Martínez Catalán of the South Iceland Nature Center told NPR in an interview that this tradition has become crucial to the survival of these puffins. “If you have one failed generation after another after another after another,” he explained, “the population is through, pretty much.” Puffins mate for life, incubating one singular egg per season with no guarantee of laying each year beyond that. In 2022, Vestmannaeyja residents only saw half the amount of baby puffins they had seen the year prior.
Generations Of Iceland Villagers Have Tossed Baby Puffins For Distance
Patrollers, which consist of some as young as four years old and as old as 90, are encouraged to aid scientists in collecting data, often logging the weight of their baby puffin on a dedicated website. During the season, you can expect to see the cliffsides packed with people lined up shoulder to shoulder, preparing their pufflings for their first big journey. For many, it is regarded as a generational tradition.
The Awkward Start To A Grand Journey
For those interested in what puffling patrolling looks like, tourists are welcome to visit Vestmannaeyja during the season. However, while it’s not illegal for foreigners to participate, it’s highly encouraged to leave the rescuing up to the locals and to just watch the baby puffin tossing from the sidelines. Just make sure to cheer them up and celebrate the beginning of these birds’ beautiful journey.
