The Great Auk — The Penguin of the North
By: Siddhanth P. Rao
Tags: Nature, Blogging, Pets, Wildlife, Birds

The Great Auk! Yes, “the great” is part of its name. You might wonder why does it have great in its name. This is a term given to those who are prominent and distinguished, and this bird is exactly that.

The Great Auk is a short flightless bird. Its height is around 75 to 85 cm, and it weighs a measly 5 kilograms. If you were to look at it, you would immediately exclaim, “Hey! This looks like a Penguin”. It is the only modern species in the genus penguins. As a matter of fact, Penguins were discovered after the Great Auk, and the Penguins were named so because of its resemblance to it.

Illustration from John James Audubon ‘s work The Birds of America , published 1827–1838.

You might ask “Where can one find this bird in the wild?” These magnificent creatures are found in the chilly waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. They nest on both sides of the ocean. They are very commonly found off the shores of Iceland, the Faroes, Greenland, the northern isles of the UK, Canada and Norway.

These birds are quite clumsy on land, but what they lack on land they make up in the water. They are excellent and powerful swimmers. This trait is a primitive tool which they use to hunt for food. They hunt and feed in flocks. Their main diet is fish, around 15 cm in length, but sometimes they feel brave and begin to hunt prey half their own size.

Reproduction is something natural and essential for the survival of all species. The Great Auk pairs mate for life. During mating season, all the birds group together in tightly packed and dense colonies. The pair lays one egg on a rock, and both parents take turns to protect the egg during the incubation period. The incubation period is usually 6 to 7 weeks. The young leave the nest site after 2–3 weeks, although the parents continue to care for it.

Gould, John (1804–1881), Author. New York Public Library

Some special features of the Auk are that, in the summers, the bird’s plumage shows a white patch over the eyes. But during the winters, these patches develop into a white band stretching in between the eyes. The Auk is considered symbolic by many Maritime Archaic people, and they were often buried with its bones.

All this might leave you wondering why you haven’t heard about these wonderful and fascinating creatures or even seen them on National Geographic or Animal Planet? Well, the one detail which I have not mentioned about the Great Auk is that this poor bird has been extinct since the mid-19th century. The main reason for their extinction is hunting.

The Great Auks were mainly hunted by sailors, primarily for their feathers and meat. The last two were taken at Eldey on 4 June 1844 when three Icelandic sailors, Sigurður Ísleifsson, Ketill Ketilsson and Jón Brandsson, were asked to collect a few specimens for the Danish natural history collector, Carl Siemsen. Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson were each quick to find and kill a bird, but Ketill returned empty-handed, as the two birds killed were the last ones, and that was how the greed of humans caused the extinction of yet another species.

Source

It is sad to see that such common and beautiful creatures were hunted and slaughtered by us humans. Hunting is the reason for the extinction of many animals. Though banned in many places, this sport is still prominent and practised in some areas. In the 1900s there were over 100,00 tigers in the wild, but due to hunting, hardly 3,100 tigers exist.

The Great Auk was one of those creatures which, if not extinct today, would have made all of us look at it in awe. But you can still make an effort to save the animals that are here now and on the verge of extinction. Do not let these beautiful creatures perish, because once gone, our future generations will not get to witness these incredible creatures, and us humans are the only ones to blame.