Since the start of the year, hundreds of guillemots, but also razorbills and gulls have been found dead or very weakened. Scientists think they know the origin of the phenomenon.
One of the hypotheses is that birds, when they face a succession of extreme climatic episodes close together, become exhausted fighting against the wind and currents. This phenomenon can be aggravated by lower accessibility to food resources, fish being dispersed during these storms, says a veterinarian at the French Office for Biodiversity.