JIM MCMAHON/MAPMAN ®
Tourists often snorkel in the waters near Skomer Island Nature Reserve in Wales—while wearing plastic puffin decoys on their heads! That allows them to get close to the seabirds without frightening them.
“Puffins are really curious,” says Emma Williams, a marine biologist and co-director of Celtic Deep, the company that runs the tours. “The birds see these plastic decoys and come over to see what they’re doing.” This year, there were a lot of puffins to hang out with. That’s because Skomer Island experienced a puffin boom! In May, scientists counted a record-breaking 43,626 puffins. The birds are thriving thanks to an abundance of their favorite food, fish called sand eels. Fishing and anchoring boats are banned in the area, allowing the ecosystem—a community of organisms interacting with their surroundings—to flourish.