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Puffin left starving after wing injury gets rescued and settles in at wildlife sanctuary

"Now she's joined the other puffins, she is integrating with the colony well."

A rescue worker holding a young puffin.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

A puffin rescued from a beach in Cornwall after becoming weak and underweight has now settled into a new home at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek.

The seabird also kept her name, Morris, after DNA testing revealed the rescued puffin was female.

Here's what to know

After recovering with local bird rehabilitation specialist Jon Matthews, Morris moved into the sanctuary's puffin colony. She had originally been found at Hawkes Point near St Ives.

Vets think Morris may have injured a wing over the winter and, for a period, depended on her parents, according to BBC News.

That changed in March. After her parents left for their breeding colony, Morris could no longer pursue bait fish on her own and began to starve.

The puffin's name came out of those early rescue efforts. Matthews had stopped at Morrisons in Penzance to buy whitebait, and a fishmonger helped feed the bird in the car park.

More background

Morris' move comes after a difficult period for puffins and other seabirds in the United Kingdom.

In February, the BBC reported on storm-battered puffins washing up on shore exhausted, storm-linked puffin deaths by the thousands, and warnings that winter weather could trigger a mass seabird "wreck."

As for Morris, she is now visible to visitors at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary as she settles in.

Clare Addyman, an animal care specialist at the sanctuary, said: "We're so pleased to have Morris with us. Now she's joined the other puffins, she is integrating with the colony well. She is often seen sitting near fellow resident Karen, sleeping in one of the burrows or motorboating around the pool!"

Matthews said: "We feel genuinely grateful that we were able to share so much time with such a gorgeous bird."

Where can I learn more?

For more on the challenges puffins face and the rescue efforts helping some survive, start with these stories.

• On a beach, a dog's alert led rescuers to a dramatic puffin rescue before it was too late.

• In Canada, rescuers checking nests found puffin chicks shrinking as food pressures worsened.

• On the Farne Islands, rangers saw a puffin self-isolating amid lingering bird flu fears.

• Off Maine, Atlantic colonies staged a careful comeback after a year of food shortages.

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