How does a puffin protect itself

Hunger will drive the chick to leave its dwellings. It then will walk, run or flap its way out to sea where it will spend the next years. In the Westman Islands it is not uncommon to find confused chicks wandering the streets during that time of year. Locals will catch the chicks, feed them and then have them weighed and measured before releasing them.

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Puffins often circle past their burrow a dozen times or more waiting for a chance to safely deliver food. Predators of puffins depend on the puffins as food to feed their own young. Although the sight of gulls eating a puffin is not pleasant, predation at large colonies does not hurt the puffin colony because the majority of the puffins survive.

Humans have had a very negative effect on puffins in the past. Today, there are threats on land and at sea. For example, over-fishing has caused a disaster for the colony on Rost Island in Norway. In recent years puffin parents have not caught enough fish to feed their chicks. Thousands of chicks have starved.

This happened because people drastically depleted the herring stocks. Over-hunting occurs when too many individuals of a particular species are killed and the remaining population is unable to replace losses.

Over-hunting puffins for food and feathers caused the loss of puffins from several colonies in Maine such as Eastern Egg Rock. Mammals such as fox and rats introduced by humans, can be very destructive because the puffins do not have adaptations to avoid them. Puffins choose isolated islands to breed because there are no large predators on the ground to disturb their nesting. If humans introduce mammal predators to these islands, the puffins are very vulnerable and may no longer be able to use that island for breeding.

Also, they become sick when they swallow oil while attempting to clean their feathers. Chemicals from farming that flow from farm to river to ocean can also make puffins sick. Uncontrolled tourism can be harmful to puffin colonies because they need solitude to breed. People who get too close may scare off parents from their duties of feeding their chick. As long as tourists stay on boats at a safe distance and do not disturb the puffins, they can easily enjoy watching a colony during the nesting season.

While humans have hurt puffin numbers in the past, we also have the ability to restore and protect colonies. We need to reduce pollution of our coasts and do a much better job managing our fisheries. This benefits seabirds and people. Puffins are not endangered but they are threatened by human activities and are rare in many areas where they were once abundant.

As a result, it is important to protect critical puffin breeding and feeding habitat. In some parts of their range there are just a few colonies. Restoration of former nesting colonies helps to reduce the risk to the regional population by establishing more nesting sites. Maine puffins were over-hunted by early settlers for food and feathers. The colonies were harvested for the maximum number of birds and eggs that could be taken without thought to whether the colony could support that level of hunting.

By the puffins were gone from the Gulf of Maine except for 2 isolated colonies. This was done so the puffins would think Egg Rock was their home and eventually return there to raise their own chicks.

From to a total of downy chicks were transplanted into artificial burrows on Egg Rock. Numbered bands were used to tag the chicks so they could be identified if they returned.

In decoy puffins were placed on the island to help attract returning birds. The first puffins returned that summer. In , the first chick was reared on Egg Rock where puffins had been absent for over a century. A similar project was completed at Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge where puffin chicks were transplanted between — Puffins recolonized Seal Island in They are adapted for preying on fish that live in cold waters.

Rising sea levels could hurt puffins by flooding their breeding islands. Global warming could also affect the distribution of the fish the puffins eat and feed their young. Puffins help people by acting as indicators of ocean health, especially over-fishing. Puffins indicate the abundance of fish by the numbers of fish they bring ashore for their chicks. If over-fishing depletes fish populations then puffins will bring home less fish.

This is a warning that we are over-fishing the ocean. This is bad for puffins and humans, since we both rely on fish for food. Puffins can serve as food for people. Locals of the Faroe Islands, Norway and Iceland have hunted puffins for centuries. The Lofoten people Norway use special puffin dogs to dig birds from burrows among narrow rocks. The Iceland and Faroe Island locals use a fleyg, which looks like a 4-meter long lacrosse pole, to catch puffins in flight.

Hunters who do this require great skill and take pride in only taking puffins that are not bringing back food to their young. This reduces the take of breeders, if successful. Puffins can also help tourism. Communities benefit from having a healthy puffin colony to share with tourists who contribute to the local economy when paying to see the birds, stay in hotels, and dine in restaurants. Responsible stewardship of puffin colonies also benefits other seabirds such as terns and storm-petrels, which nest compatibly on the same islands.

Techniques developed to restore the puffin are also useful in managing endangered seabirds such as Roseate Terns. More than 40 seabird species in at least 12 countries have benefitted from the seabird restoration techniques developed by Project Puffin.

The center opened its doors officially on July 1, Donations and Puffin Adoptions are tax-deductible. The Cowichan Lake lamprey Entosphenus macrostomus is a freshwater parasitic lamprey species. It has a worm or eel-like shape with two distinct dorsal fins and a small tail. It is a slender fish reaching a maximum length of about mm. When they are getting ready to spawn they shrink in length and their dorsal fins overlap. Unlike many other fish species, when lampreys are getting ready to spawn you can tell the difference between males and females.

Females develop fleshy folds on either side of their cloaca and an upturned tail. The males have a downturned tail and no fleshy folds. These seven gill pores are located one after another behind the eye. There are several characteristics which are normally used to identify lamprey. Many of these are based on morphometrics or measurements, of or between various body parts like width of the eye or, distance between the eye and the snout.

Other identifying characteristics include body colour and the number and type of teeth. Some distinguishing characteristics of this species are the large mouth, called and oral disc and a large eye. This species also has unique dentition. For example, these teeth are called inner laterals. Each lateral tooth has cusps and together they always occur in a cusp pattern.

At the same time, the Sea Otter is the largest member of its family, the mustelids, which includes River Otters, weasels, badgers, wolverines and martens. It may come to land to flee from predators if needed, but the rest of its time is spent in the ocean. It varies in colour from rust to black. Unlike seals and sea lions, the Sea Otter has little body fat to help it survive in the cold ocean water. Instead, it has both guard hairs and a warm undercoat that trap bubbles of air to help insulate it.

The otter is often seen at the surface grooming; in fact, it is pushing air to the roots of its fur. Mollusks are invertebrates, meaning they have no bones. They are cold-blooded, like all invertebrates, and have blue, copper-based blood. The octopus is soft-bodied, but it has a very small shell made of two plates in its head and a powerful, parrot-like beak. The Giant Pacific Octopus is the largest species of octopus in the world. Specimens have weighed as much as kg and measured 9.

Studies determined, though, that they are indeed different. While the Western Chorus Frog might have slightly shorter legs than the Boreal Chorus Frog, and that their respective calls have different structures, genetics have proven this. Chorus Frogs are about the size of large grape, about 2.

They are pear-shaped, with a large body compared to their pointed snout. Their smooth although a bit granular skin varies in colour from green-grey to brownish. They are two of our smallest frogs, but best ways to tell them apart from other frogs is by the three dark stripes down their backs, which can be broken into blotches, by their white upper lip, and by the dark line that runs through each eye.

Their belly is generally yellow-white to light green. Males are slightly smaller than females, but the surest way to tell sexes apart is by the fact that only males call and can inflate their yellow vocal sacs. Adults tend to live only for one year, but some have lived as many as three years. Their tadpoles the life stage between the egg and the adult are grey or brown.

Their body is round with a clear tail. The Common Raven Corvus corax is one of the heaviest passerine birds and the largest of all the songbirds. It is easily recognizable because of its size between 54 and 67 centimetres long, with a wingspan of to cm, and weighing between 0. It has a ruff of feathers on the throat, which are called 'hackles', and a wide, robust bill. When in flight, it has a wedge-shaped tail, with longer feathers in the middle.

While females may be a bit smaller, both sexes are very similar. The size of an adult raven may also vary according to its habitat, as subspecies from colder areas are often larger. A raven may live up to 21 years in the wild, making it one of the species with the longest lifespan in all passerine birds. Both birds are from the same genus order of passerine birds, corvid family —like jays, magpies and nutcrackers, Corvus genus and have a similar colouring.

But the American Crow is smaller with a wingspan of about 75 cm and has a fan-shaped tail when in flight with no longer feathers. Their cries are different: the raven produces a low croaking sound, while the crow has a higher pitched cawing cry. While adult ravens tend to live alone or in pairs, crows are more often observed in larger groups. The Atlantic Cod Gadus morhua is a medium to large saltwater fish: generally averaging two to three kilograms in weight and about 65 to centimetres in length, the largest cod on record weighed about kg and was more than cm long!

Individuals living closer to shore tend to be smaller than their offshore relatives, but male and female cod are not different in size, wherever they live. The Atlantic Cod shares some of its physical features with the two other species of its genus, or group of species, named Gadus.

The Pacific Cod and Alaska Pollock also have three rounded dorsal fins and two anal fins. They also have small pelvic fins right under their gills, and barbels or whiskers on their chins. Both Pacific and Atlantic Cod have a white line on each side of their bodies from the gills to their tails, or pectoral fins.

This line is actually a sensory organ that helps fish detect vibrations in the water. The colour of an Atlantic Cod is often darker on its top than on its belly, which is silver, white or cream-coloured.

In rocky areas, a cod may be a darker brown colour. Cod are often mottled, or have a lot of darker blotches or spots. It can weigh up to 63, kilograms and measure up to 16 metres. Females tend to be a bit larger than males — measuring, on average, one metre longer.

Its head makes up about a fourth of its body length, and its mouth is characterized by its arched, or highly curved, jaw. Its skin is otherwise smooth and black, but some individuals have white patches on their bellies and chin.

It has large, triangular flippers, or pectoral fins. Its tail, also called flukes or caudal fins, is broad six m wide from tip to tip! Unlike most other large whales, it has no dorsal fin. For a variety of reasons, including its rarity, scientists know very little about this rather large animal. For example, there is little data on the longevity of Right Whales, but photo identification on living whales and the analysis of ear bones and eyes on dead individuals can be used to estimate age.

It is believed that they live at least 70 years, maybe even over years, since closely related species can live as long. Unique characteristics. The Right Whale has a bit of an unusual name. Its name in French is more straightforward; baleine noire, the black whale. The American Eel Anguilla rostrata is a fascinating migratory fish with a very complex life cycle. Like salmon, it lives both in freshwater and saltwater.

It is born in saltwater and migrating to freshwater to grow and mature before returning to saltwater to spawn and die. The American Eel can live as long as 50 years. It is a long, slender fish that can grow longer than one metre in length and 7. Males tend to be smaller than females, reaching a size of about 0. With its small pectoral fins right behind its gills, absence of pelvic fins, long dorsal and ventral fins and the thin coat of mucus on its tiny scales, the adult eel slightly resembles a slimy snake but are in fact true fish.

Adult eels vary in coloration, from olive green and brown to greenish-yellow, with a light gray or white belly. Females are lighter in colour than males. Large females turn dark grey or silver when they mature.

The American Eel is the only representative of its genus or group of related species in North America, but it does have a close relative which shares the same spawning area: the European Eel. Both have similar lifecycles but different distributions in freshwater systems except in Iceland, where both and hybrids of both species can be found. The American Lobster Homarus americanus is a marine invertebrate which inhabits our Atlantic coastal waters. As an invertebrate, it lacks bones, but it does have an external shell, or exoskeleton, making it an arthropod like spiders and insects.

Its body is divided in two parts: the cephalothorax its head and body and its abdomen, or tail. On its head, the lobster has eyes that are very sensitive to movement and light, which help it to spot predators and prey, but are unable to see colours and clear images. It also has three pairs of antennae, a large one and two smaller ones, which are its main sensory organs and act a bit like our nose and fingers.

Around its mouth are small appendages called maxillipeds and mandibles which help direct food to the mouth and chew. Lobsters have ten legs, making them decapod ten-legged crustaceans, a group to which shrimp and crabs also belong other arthropods have a different number of legs, like spiders, which have eight, and insects, which have six.

Four pairs of these legs are used mainly to walk and are called pereiopods. The remaining pair, at the front of the cephalothorax, are called chelipeds and each of those limbs ends with a claw. These claws help the lobster defend itself, but also capture and consume its prey. Each claw serves a different purpose: the bigger, blunter one is used for crushing, and the smaller one with sharper edges, for cutting.

The Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica is a medium-sized songbird, about the size of a sparrow. It measures between 15 and 18 centimeters cm in length and 29 to 32 cm in wingspan, and weighs between 15 and 20 grams g. Its back and tail plumage is a distinctive steely, iridescent blue, with light brown or rust belly and a chestnut-coloured throat and forehead.

Their long forked tail and pointed wings also make them easily recognizable. Both sexes may look similar, but females are typically not as brightly coloured and have shorter tails than males. When perched, this swallow looks almost conical because of its flat, short head, very short neck and its long body.

Although the average lifespan of a Barn Swallow is about four years, a North American individual older than eight years and a European individual older than 16 years have been observed. Sights and sounds: Like all swallows, the Barn Swallow is diurnal —it is active during the day, from dusk to dawn.

It is an agile flyer that creates very acrobatic patterns in flight. It can fly from very close to the ground or water to more than 30 m heights. When not in flight, the Barn Swallow can be observed perched on fences, wires, TV antennas or dead branches.

Both male and female Barn Swallows sing both individually and in groups in a wide variety of twitters, warbles, whirrs and chirps. They give a loud call when threatened, to which other swallows will react, leaving their nests to defend the area.

Freshwater turtles are reptiles, like snakes, crocodilians and lizards. They also have a scaly skin, enabling them, as opposed to most amphibians, to live outside of water. Also like many reptile species, turtles lay eggs they are oviparous.

But what makes them different to other reptiles is that turtles have a shell. This shell, composed of a carapace in the back and a plastron on the belly, is made of bony plates. These bones are covered by horny scutes made of keratin like human fingernails or leathery skin, depending on the species. All Canadian freshwater turtles can retreat in their shells and hide their entire body except the Common Snapping Turtle Chelydra serpentina.

This shell is considered perhaps the most efficient form of armour in the animal kingdom, as adult turtles are very likely to survive from one year to the next.

Indeed, turtles have an impressively long life for such small animals. Most other species can live for more than 20 years. There are about species of turtles throughout the world, inhabiting a great variety of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems on every continent except Antarctica and its waters.

In Canada, eight native species of freshwater turtles and four species of marine turtles can be observed. Another species, the Pacific Pond Turtle Clemmys marmorata , is now Extirpated, having disappeared from its Canadian range. Also, the Eastern Box Turtle Terrapene carolina has either such a small population that it is nearly Extirpated, or the few individuals found in Canada are actually pets released in the wild.

More research is needed to know if these turtles are still native individuals. Finally, the Red-eared Slider Trachemys scripta elegans , has been introduced to Canada as released pets and, thus, is not a native species. Females tend to be slightly larger than males but are otherwise identical. As its name implies, it is pale tan to reddish or dark brown with a slightly paler belly, and ears and wings that are dark brown to black.