Puffins 'one bad year' away from disappearing from Jersey's north coast

Campaigners warn that puffins are at risk of disappearing altogether from Jersey's shoreline.

Records show that 100 years ago, the number of pairs on the island's north coast was between 250 and 300. However, that number has now fallen to just four.

Reasons for their decline include the destruction of their habitat by invasive predators and climate change.

Birds On The Edge says that because the island's population is so small, it is more susceptible to random events such as oil spills or heavy storms - and they could be just "one bad year" away from vanishing completely.

The organisation is launching a project to increase the numbers of the colourful seabirds at the cliffs between Greve de Lecq and Plémont. They say future conservation measures would have to prevent invasive predators are excluded from the cliffs and prevented from accessing them.

Other colonies in the Channel Islands are managing to survive in Burhou, off the coast of Alderney, Sark and Herm.