Every year as the summer comes to a close, the people in the Vestmannaeyjr (Westman Islands) of Iceland take part in an unusual tradition. They track down baby puffins and throw them off a cliff.

While this may sound like a terrible idea, it is actually an important conservation effort that is helping to protect these birds, which are listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. Around this time of year, the islands bring in nearly a million breeding pair of puffins to lay their eggs, and when they hatch, the babies (called pufflings) walk out of their burrows for the first time and head toward the ocean.

To accomplish this, the pufflings are supposed to follow the light of the moon. Unfortunately, the cities in the area also give off a glow, which means they fly the wrong way. The young puffins are confused and too tired to fly again, leaving them vulnerable to predators (like cats) and being unable to find food.

Fortunately, the people living in these cities do all they can to come to the rescue. The rescuers walk the streets in the night to find stranded pufflings and place them into comfortable boxes for the small birds to rest. In the morning, they will drive them to the cliffs overlooking the ocean and throw them off.

Once thrown, their instincts take over and the birds start flying out to the ocean to join their families. Individual rescuers have reported saving up to 10 pufflings per night during the busiest times of the year. On the site Inspired by Iceland, Kyana Sue Powers wrote:

“The pufflings are brought to the south side of the Island. The location can be found on Google Maps as ‘Beautiful Puffin and Shore View.’ The cliffs and air are dotted with hundreds of adult puffins and families can be found releasing their puffins one by one into the wild. Children of all ages and adults, hold firm to the pufflings as they throw them high into the air above the sea cliffs. Once the pufflings hit the air their wings flap rapidly and they take off towards the ocean. Occasionally a lazy puffling will flop to the group and hobble off the cliff but they instinctively begin to soar as they fall through the air.”

Over the years, countless thousands of puffins have been saved this way, helping to keep their population numbers up.

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