Earlier this year, the Trade Council in Hokkaido, Japan, requested that Icelandic puffins be sent to a local zoo. The request, submitted in February, was rejected due to the status of Iceland’s puffin population, reports RÚV.

Requests from foreign zoos for Icelandic puffins are common but are almost always denied. A biologist notes the contradiction in allowing the hunting of 25,000 puffins annually while prohibiting their export.

Another notable request came from Singapore in 2010, when authorities asked for 200 Icelandic puffins to populate a new polar-themed zoo, according to Össur Skarphéðinsson, Iceland’s foreign minister at the time.

Erpur Snær Hansen, a puffin expert and director of the Natural History Museum of South Iceland, says Icelandic puffins are highly sought after worldwide. “There’s just something about the puffin — this quirky bird that’s so common in Iceland — that touches people everywhere,” he says. “I think it’s probably in the top five most popular animals in people’s minds globally.”

Contradiction in policy

The only known case of Icelandic puffins being exported with government permission since 2006 occurred last year, when birds injured in the wild were sent to a zoo in the UK. Veterinary assessments concluded that the birds were unfit to be released back into the wild, the ministry said.

Erpur highlights the inconsistency of Iceland’s policy. “The contradiction is a bit extreme — banning the export of a few dozen birds while tens of thousands are being killed in Iceland. […] I think a few dozen birds either way wouldn’t have mattered much. But it’s perhaps just a matter of principle.”