Effects of supplementary feeding on provisioning and growth rates of Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica chicks in North Norway

Published source details Dahl H.K., Barrett R.T. & Ims R.A. (2005) Effects of supplementary feeding on provisioning and growth rates of Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica chicks in North Norway. Atlantic Seabirds, 7, 133-143.
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Summary

Provide supplementary food for auks to increase reproductive success

A replicated, controlled study in 2003 in northern Norway (Dahl et al. 2005) reported that supplementary feeding Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica chicks had no significant effect on their growth rate, because parents reduced their provisioning rate. Over the first 34 days after hatching, chicks with and without supplementary food experienced a statistically similar increase in mass (from 52 g to 348–365 g) and a similar increase in wing length (from 27 mm to 125 mm). Chicks given supplementary food were fed less often by adult puffins (0.25 times/h) than chicks without supplementary food (0.42 times/h). In summer 2003, eighty-five burrows were selected on Hornøya Island. Local wild fish stocks were low. Chicks in 44 of the burrows were fed thawed capelin Mallotus villosus (30–0 g/day, placed in nest chamber), to supplement feeding by their parents. Chicks were weighed and measured every three days, 1–34 days after hatching. Adults entering burrows with food were recorded simultaneously on 5–14 burrows with and 11–13 burrows without supplementary food.