It’s that time of year again. No, we’re not talking about back-to-school – it’s throw a puffin off a cliff season, duh! In Iceland, as summer draws to a close, obliging locals give baby puffins a helping hand as they leave their burrows for the first time and attempt to find the ocean. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

It’s a long-held tradition in the Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands), where puffins nest in large numbers. The island cluster is home to the largest puffin colony in the world, with around 830,000 breeding pairs – approximately 20 percent of the global population – arriving each spring/summer to mate and lay their eggs.

As the nights start drawing in, puffin chicks – adorably known as pufflings – start t

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