UNB researchers find a 33 -year -old puffin, who mark a known record age for a bird
How old is an old puffin?
Well, the oldest known puffin in New Breanswick – and Canada – was found at the age of 33 this week.
Researchers from the Atlantic Laboratory for avian research, through the New Breanswick University, located in the puffin, originated in the 1992 Machius Seal Island, which is located in the Gulf of Main, with its original identity band over three decades.
Daniel Olikar, a graduate student at the New Breanswick University, who studied the Atlantic Puffin Ecology, says he is confident that it is the oldest puffin in the province so far – its first occupation was when it was banded – and it is the oldest in North America.
“This is very important and it is a unique piece of information to gather,” said Olikar.
Records indicate that the last oldest 29 years old, “So it defeats our record for four years which is very enough.”
The research team has been monitoring five other species of puffin and sebird, including Razorbills, Common Murray and Leach Storm Petrell, since 1995 on 1995.
Earlier, there were employees in Canada Wildlife Services who lived on the island to oversee the tourist landing, inspect birds on the island and band puffin looked at girls.
While researchers use two metal bands today as identification markers, plastic bands were used for a few years after the research program started.
When a researcher looked at a puffin wearing a plastic band earlier this week, Olikar said, the team knew that it should be very old.
They were waiting until the dark, when the puffins were more likely to be in their boar, and then went to search.
“We created a group of Baroz,” said Olikar. “This means that in the boor, his hand was glued and in search of the bird. And then I felt something that did not feel like a metal band on a bird’s leg, but a plastic one … so I pulled it out.
“Lo and see, it was a plastic one, and this band was really good because it was highly worn, the most worn band I have ever seen.”
Olikar said that the numbers on the band were still in a health, and it was determined that the puffin was last seen in 2007.
He said, “Just being able to find that bird, lucky to go lucky and actually find out what the band number said.”
“It was very exciting, it is always fun to find those old birds and see their history.”
Tony Diamond, who started the Machias Seal Island Research Program 30 years ago and therefore, it suggests how difficult it was to read the Group of researchers, because it was difficult to read the identity band.
He said that it only expands the length of this research project to many years, so it is important.
Diamond said, “This is not just a solution to how long the puffins live, this is a solution that how long the research has been going on.”
“It is very exciting that they caught the bird, and it speaks excessive about their inspiration.”
Olikar said that Pafin now plays a new metal band, so researchers on the island can continue monitoring it for years to come.
He said that such information is important to understand the longevity and lifetime of the puffin, how many chickens they can back in their lifetime, and how they have performed through environmental changes.
“Being born in 1992, (this puffin) has passed a lot in his lifetime, especially in the last 20 years, with a huge change in the environment,” Olikar said.
“It is still capable of lifting chickens and hopes to increase successful chickens, and it is still alive. So it tells us a lot how rigid and frequent these birds are.”
