The paradox of Corona 19… ‘Healing Bird’ Puffin is back

The bird’Puppin’ (Daenggi’s Sea Duck) living on the North Atlantic coast is a beloved mascot in Britain and the United States. Children grow up watching puffin fairy tales, and adults grab a camera to see puffins and visit a rare island. Watching the puffin makes me feel better and makes me feel peaceful.

Puffins are monogamous and have only one egg at a time, and both males and females raise together. It is famous for its unique affinity. They live in a rare, clean nature, but are not afraid of people. Puffins full of curiosity are often introduced through nature documentaries as they writhe and wander toward a person holding a camera.

Here is a representative picture showing Puffin’s sociality. This is a picture of a puffin lifting one leg while looking at a model of puffin installed on the beach. Two years ago, it became famous among social media users in Anglo-American countries as a’meme’, a popular online trend.

The model was made the same size as the actual puffin, but only the leg part was replaced with one nail and built on the rock. In Puffin’s eyes, this model looked like a friend with only one leg. People speculated that Puffin raised one leg while looking at his friend, probably because of his empathy.

Although it is a beloved bird, the puffin is actually an endangered species. Due to climate change and global warming, the number of populations has plummeted. In May last year, in a paper titled “Unusual mass death of puffins found in the Bering Sea,” an academic journal at the U.S. Public Science Library reported that hundreds of puffins were found dead due to increased water temperature and decreased food. . The researchers estimated that between October 2016 and January 2017, between October 2016 and January 2017, between 3150 and 88,000 puffins in the Bering Sea, Alaska, starved to death.

A puffin restoration project is also taking place on the coast of Maine, the US, where puffins were once home. According to CNN, ornithologist Steve Cres has had some success with the’Puppin Project’ for decades to bring Puffin back to the area. The natural environment was improved and puffin models were built so that social puffins could naturally stay in this area. Currently, 1300 pairs of puffins have nested in the area.

It is said that he is experiencing the crisis caused by climate change in recent years. In an interview with CNN in October last year, Cres was concerned that “when the seawater warms, it becomes difficult for puffins to hunt fish.”

Puffin was also affected by the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19). The Puffin follow-up project, which has continued in Maine, has also been temporarily suspended. In June, President Donald Trump said that the corona 19 had caused fishermen to struggle, and scammed the state’s backlash by lifting measures to protect Puffin’s main habitat.

However, Puffin wasn’t the only victim of Corona 19. In England A swarm of puffins has also been observed on the coastal islands of Northumberland, where tourists were cut off due to the corona 19 effect.. According to the BBC, puffins that have appeared in the area since March have been observed to lay eggs and make more nests while tourists disappear.

As the number of puffins stabilized, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in December last year excluded puffins from the list of endangered species.

Some scientists believe that the COVID-19 outbreak has caused global pain, but paradoxically, the timetable for climate change has been somewhat delayed. This is because GHG emissions have decreased due to movement restrictions and containment measures, and low-carbon energy investments are actively being made.

Reporter Jeong Eun-hye [email protected]