Lone Puffin Rescued On Glacier Expedition

A puffin was found and rescued this week by itself in the middle of the glacier Langjökull. The bird was discovered by a group of people who had been on an expedition on the glacier.

According to Martha Jónasdóttir, who led the expedition in a big glacier bus, the puffin had been lying helplessly on the ice, unable to fly. She tells RÚV that they stopped the bus to check on the puffin. The group then picked it up rather easily and after a safe journey in the bus that allowed the puffin to recover, it was taken to Borgarnes and released to the sea.

Photo sent to Vísir

According to RÚV, Erpur Snær Hansen, director of Náttúrustofa Suðurlands and doctor of biology, says in an interview with the news agency that he has no explanation as to why the puffin got lost on a glacier. He says he does not know of many findings of this kind. Erpur says that puffins can get lost in severe storms, but they rarely go far.

Ásdís Ólafsdóttir, who was on the trip, tells Vísir that the puffin was named Þormar Jökull by the group and sent off with a rendition of “Happy Birthday” in Icelandic, since that was the only song everyone knew.

As shown in the video below that was originally uploaded to Vísir, by the time the group reached the harbour, Þormar Jökull was recovered enough to fly out into the water.

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