* For more news stories like this every week, subscribe and save
Puffins living on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast will be tagged with GPS transmitters this summer a world first for these birds in order to shed new light on their movements and behaviour.
Puffin numbers have fallen dramatically in the past five years, and researchers hope the reasons why will be revealed by plotting their time on the islands and what happens to them when they leave later this month. National Trust warden David Steel says: ‘This has become the case of the disappearing puffins.
Young puffins are successfully fledging each year and it would seem that their staple food, the sand eel, is in good supply, but they aren’t coming back.’ As well as the tags, which are glued on to the birds’ feathers and will map their movements, further work will be carried out using time-depth records. These devices provide information on diving behaviour and sea temperatures, which should help us understand how puffins might be affected by climate change.
-
Graham Norton's elegant East London home hits the market, and it's just as wonderful as you would expectThe four-bedroom home in Wapping should be studied for how well it uses two separate spaces to create a home of immense character and utility.
-
Sign of the times: In the age of the selfie, what’s happening to the humble autograph?When Ringo Starr announced that he was no longer going to sign anything, he kickstarted a celebrity movement that coincided with the advent of the camera phone and selfie. Rob Crossan asks whether, in today’s world, the selfie holds more clout than an autograph?
