The Great Auk was driven to extinction by 1844. Tim Birkhead details the misconceptions surrounding its ecology and natural history that have persevered over the last two centuries. Utilising contemporary research on the auk’s skeletal remains, Birkhead offers new insight into the characteristics of the species and our historic relationship with it.
No more than one or two scholars and ornithologists ever saw a Great Auk Pinguinus impennis alive. This was in part because when it was realised, in about 1800, that the bird was extremely rare, the ensuing scientific stampede for museum skins- and the chance for dealers to make a quick and lucrative killing- drove the species to extinction by 1844.