TUFTED PUFFINS ON THE BRINK OF DYING OUT IN JAPAN

Tufted puffins appear to be on the brink of dying out in Japan with only a few pairs spotted on the northern main island of Hokkaido despite local conservation efforts, Kyodo News reported.

Recognizable by their orange bills, tufted puffins can now be found in the country only on two uninhabited islands located off Nemuro in the east of Hokkaido.

The approximately 40-centimeter-tall birds, known as "Etopirika" in Japan, nest in burrows on islands and in coastal areas along the North Pacific, including Moscow-held islands off Hokkaido claimed by Tokyo. The global population was estimated at 3.5 million in 1996, but numbers in Japan have been in rapid decline since the 1970s.

The domestic count in 2015 was estimated to have decreased by 87 percent from 1980, according to Hokkaido University, and the seabird is categorized as highly endangered on the Environment Ministry's Red List of threatened species.

No specific causes of the population decrease have been identified so far, although changes in ocean temperatures as a result of global warming and falling victim to bycatches could be among the factors, according to the ministry.