There has been a dramatic decline
in the number of puffins on Shetland.
MARTYN MCLAUGHLIN
Published: 19:27 Sunday 03 June
2018 Updated: 07:58 Monday 04 June 2018
One of Scotland’s most
significant seabird colonies has experienced an “apocalyptic” decline in
numbers, according to the country’s largest nature conservation charity. The
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the sharp drop off in the
seabird population in Shetland was unprecedented. Scientists have attributed
the downward trend to a series of factors, including climate change, declining
food sources and the scourge of plastic pollutants. The charity, which runs a
nature reserve at Sumburgh Head on the southern tip of the Shetland mainland,
warned the plummeting numbers were “utterly tragic” Helen Moncrieff, RSPB’s
area manager for Shetland, said at the society’s sites in Dalsetter and
Troswick there were only 110 Arctic terns last week, compared with around 9,000
at the turn of the millennium.
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