I & I - 2011, Qupperneq 20

20 I&I
esA: A slain puffin. Its head and colorful
beak at a twisted angle, the remains of its
innards and skeleton stretched out to twice
the bird’s length, black and white feathers
scattered around the grass. This is the work
of the Great Skua. “I don’t feel sorry for the
occasional puffin that gets caught,” says
Einar Sigurdsson, who runs tours to the
bird reserve Ingólfshöfdi in southeast Ice-
land with his family. “There are millions of
puffins but only thousands of skuas.” There
weren’t many puffins on the promontory
this early in the season in May but as soon
as our guide spotted one, he brought out
his telescope, placed it firmly on the edge
of a cliff and invited us to take a look at
the bird up close. Such an adorable little
creature.
For some time, the Great Skuas were
hunted in high numbers in the region be-
cause people disliked their behavior. But
as the skua population started dwindling,
people had the good sense to place them
under preservation. Today there are ap-
proximately 5,400 skua couples in Iceland,
which accounts for almost half of the Great
Skua’s world population. The bird mainly
nests along the country’s southern coast.
As for the puffin, scientists have voiced
concern as its nesting in south and west
Iceland has failed in the past summers
because of lack of sandeels. For now the
Great Skua is safe but what happens if its
prey disappears? Or maybe the birds are
among evolution’s favorites that adapt
easily to new situations as long as they are
left alone by humans.
bj: Ingólfshöfdi in late June when the
nesting season was at its peak. We were
in skua territory. The group stopped and
saw a bird sitting on a nest. It looked calm.
But don’t let looks deceive you. Suddenly,
one of its mates appeared out of nowhere.
It was a big bird with a wing span of at
least 150 centimeters (about five feet). It
looked mean.
Suddenly it attacked.
Fortunately, the guide was the target
and he could defend himself with a stick.
The skua comes at you again and again as
we soon would learn. We ran away. Jump-
ing off the cliff might have seemed like a
good idea if the attacks hadn’t stopped.
Luckily, we were then sufficiently far
from the nest and had left the protective
bird’s territory. The guide pointed out a
puffin, thus saving the trip for many of the
foreigners.
History repeats itself and this history
was no exception. From one nest to the
next. Past the seamen’s shelter, to the
lighthouse that was serving as a shelter
for a group of sheep, standing by its yel-
low wall.
esA: It’s survival of the fittest, I suppose,
but I must admit I favor puffins over skuas,
even though the latter bird is impressive
to watch. Others obviously feel the same
tHe cute,
tHe crueL
And tHe
tourists
Everyone likes the puffins, but the cruel skua is
indeed a rare bird, as Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir
and Benedikt Jóhannesson found out during their
respective trips to the Ingólfshöfdi bird reserve.
way given that puffins are the main reason
people visit Ingólfshöfdi, despite the bird
reserve having been established originally
to protect the Great Skua.
May they both flourish for centuries to
come, I thought, as I bid Ingólfshöfdi fare-
well.
The Great Skua let out a cry—in agree-
ment, I decided, promising to teach its little
brother new methods of survival. But it’s
more likely the greedy predator was just
preparing for a new hunt.

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