British puffins driven to cannibalism
The puffin, Britain's most colourful seabird, is resorting to cannibalism following a sudden catastrophic decline in the sand eel population on which they traditionally feed.
In desperation they are eating each other's chicks, according to one of Britain's leading seabird experts.
They are also causing the deaths of their own chicks by bringing to their nests the nearest food to sand eels that they can find - pipefish, the bones of which cause the chicks to choke to death.
Sand eels are disappearing due to dramatic changes in their plankton diet in the North Sea.
Experts believe that they can cope with two, three or perhaps slightly more poor breeding seasons. But they cannot cope forever.
The island of Canna's kittiwake colony of about 1,000 pairs saw its worst recorded year in 2005 with only 5 fledged chicks.
Experts are divided over whether the change is due to global warming, to industrial fishing, or whether it may just be a "blip"
clipped from: www.telegraph.co.uk 
