Great auk

The great auk, Pinguinus impennis, was a large member of the auk family, Alcidae, adapted to life at sea. It could not fly, but its wings helped propel it underwater as it pursued food. The species ranged across the North Atlantic, with breeding colonies on islands off Newfoundland and elsewhere along eastern North America, Iceland, Scotland and Scandinavia. Although its black-and-white appearance has often invited comparison with penguins, it belonged to a different bird family; its closest living relative is the razorbill.

Great auks spent much of their lives at sea and came ashore to breed on isolated, rocky islands. Predator-free islands were important nesting sites. On land the birds moved less adeptly than they did in water, and their colonies could be reached by people travelling increasingly far offshore. This combination of large breeding gatherings, limited nesting locations and flightlessness made the species especially exposed to hunting when maritime access and demand increased.

People hunted great auks for food and bait, and also took their eggs, feathers and fat. Historical exploitation intensified as European fishing and maritime activity expanded in the North Atlantic; later, rarity made skins and eggs sought-after objects for collectors. A 2019 study combining ancient mitochondrial DNA, ocean-current information and population-viability analyses found no evidence that great auks were already at risk of extinction before intensive human hunting began in the early sixteenth century. Its modelling indicated that hunting alone could have been sufficient to cause extinction, while not proving that every aspect of the decline had a single cause.

The Smithsonian identifies a pair killed by collectors in 1844 as the last known pair. The BirdLife International species factsheet gives 1852 as the year of the last live-bird sighting; this later report does not alter the well-documented 1844 killing of the final known breeding pair. The species is extinct, and preserved skins, bones and eggs in museum collections remain important evidence for studying its biology and history. The great auk is also a cautionary example of how exploitation can eliminate an abundant, geographically widespread animal.