Fears puffins could die out on UK's Farne Islands as numbers plummet

The number of puffins appears to have fallen sharply at one of the UK's most important habitats, with experts warning the species could be extinct in 50 years.

The National Trust said its latest census on the remote Farne Islands suggested the population had dropped by 12% in the last five years.

On one of the islands, off the Northumberland coast, the number of puffins had plummeted 42%.

Wildlife experts said the results were "much worse than expected" following the last count in 2013, when nearly 40,000 breeding pairs were recorded.

:: A quarter of Britain's birds at serious risk of extinction

"Initial findings are concerning," National Trust ranger Tom Hendry said.

"Numbers could be down due to stormy or wetter weather as well as changes in the sand eel population, which is one of their staple foods."

Fellow ranger Harriet Reid said: "Predictions have been made that within the next 50-100 years these stunning birds will have completely died out on the Farne Islands."

Having surveyed four of the eight islands where the census takes place, the National Trust said there appeared to be an overall 12% reduction in breeding pairs across the sites.

Puffins also returned four weeks later than normal to their breeding grounds on the windswept islands, where they rear chicks in burrows, due to the prolonged, harsh winter.

Atlantic puffins were listed as "vulnerable" to extinction and placed on a "red list" of threatened species in 2015, amid falling global numbers.

The National Trust said climate change could be contributing to food shortages and extreme weather affecting the birds.

The birds could also be threatened by over-fishing, invasive predators such as rats on some islands and marine pollution, the charity added.

The trust says it is considering assessing the birds more frequently but has acknowledged they are "notoriously difficult" to monitor.

Puffin records on the Farne Islands date back to 1939, when just 3,000 breeding pairs were recorded.

The figures continued to climb steadily until 2008, when numbers fell by a third to nearly 37,000 breeding pairs, with climate change blamed.

In the last census in 2013, there were 39,962 breeding pairs on the islands.