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Volume 50, No. 1

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Historical distribution and current population status of Tufted Puffins Fratercula cirrhata in Canada's California Current System


Authors

LOUISE K. BLIGHT1,2 & GREGORY MCCLELLAND3
1Procellaria Research & Consulting, 944 Dunsmuir Road, Victoria, British Columbia V9A 5C3, Canada (louise.blight@gmail.com)
2School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8P 5C2, Canada
3Environment and Climate Change Canada, Pacific Wildlife Research Centre, 5421 Robertson Road, Delta, British Columbia V4K 3Y3, Canada

Citation

BLIGHT, L.K. & MCCLELLAND, G. 2022. Historical distribution and current population status of Tufted Puffins Fratercula cirrhata in Canada's California Current System. Marine Ornithology 50: 35 - 42

Received 14 June 2021, accepted 28 August 2021

Date Published: 2022/04/15
Date Online: 2022/02/10
Key words: Alcidae, British Columbia, California Current, historical ecology, monitoring, seabirds

Abstract

Unpublished accounts indicate that the number of Tufted Puffin colonies in western Canada has declined in recent decades. However, a lack of recent colony count data makes it impossible to determine current trends. Here we compile published and unpublished information for Tufted Puffins in the Canadian portion of the California Current System (i.e., from the vicinity of the Scott Islands south to the Canada-US border) to update understanding of the species' status in the region, and to assemble available information in a single source. We found historical records of three additional colonies over those in pre-existing compilations, bringing the total count for the region to 19. However, 11 of these are currently extirpated and another three likely so. All but one of these extirpated colonies are ‘very small' (historical mode of counts, 1-3 pairs), reflecting patterns of Tufted Puffin colony loss in US waters to the south. Two larger puffin colonies (historical counts, 20-50 pairs) underwent abandonment in the 1990s, but one of these appears to have been recolonized recently. Tufted Puffin numbers at Canada's largest colony, Triangle Island, are likely stable. A lack of standardized monitoring of these colonies, with the exception of Triangle Island, makes it challenging to understand population trends, undertake restoration work, or mitigate current threats.

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