Great Auk

The Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) is an extinct bird. It is classified as the only species in the genus Pinguinus. It was also known as garefowl, from the Old Norse geirfugl, or penguin (see etymology below). At about 75 centimetres or 30-34 inches, the flightless Great Auk was the largest of the auks. It had white and glossy black feathers. The longest wing feathers were only 4 inches long. Its feet and claws were black. The webbed skin between the toes was brown/black. The beak is black with white tranverse groves. There was an area of white feathers on both side of the head between the beak and each eye. It had a reddish/brown iris. Juvenile birds had less prominant grooves in their beaks and had mottled white and black necks.

In the past, the Great Auk was found in great numbers on islands off eastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Ireland and Great Britain, but it was eventually hunted to extinction.

They were excellent swimmers, using their wings to swim underwater. Their main food was fish. They walked slowly and sometimes used their wings to help them over the land. They had few natural predators, besides perhaps Polar Bears in icy areas, and had no innate fear of humans. Their flightlessness and awkwardness on land compounded their vulnerability to humans, who hunted them for food, feathers, and also for specimen collection for museums and private collections.

Eggs

The Great Auk laid only one egg each year which they incubated on bare ground. The eggs were yellowish white with black spots and lines mostly on the large end. The eggs hatched in June.

Extinction

The great auk was hunted for food and down for mattresses from at least the 8th century. The little ice age may have reduced their numbers, but massive exploitation for their down eventually reduced the Great Auk population to very few birds. Specimens of the great auk and its eggs became collectable and highly prized, and collecting contributed to the demise of the species. Today about 80 preserved skins and approximately 70 eggs are known to exist. The last pair, who were found incubating an egg, were killed July 3 1844, on the island of Eldey off Iceland, though a later sighting was claimed of a live individual in 1852 off the Newfoundland Banks in Canada.

The Greak Auk has become a symbol of Man's inconsideration to animals and the importance of biodiversity.

Museum specimens

Image:greatauk-tring.jpg|Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, Tring, England Image:greatauk-london.jpg|Natural History Museum, London, England Image:auk-egg.jpg|Egg, Ipswich Museum, Ipswich, Suffolk, England

It might be possible that DNA biology may become sufficiently advanced that several male and female living Great Auks could be built from the DNA held within museum specimens. A captive breeding programme could be started for reintroduction of the great auk back into the wild. This would need a lot of work. Great auks can breed in small groups, as indicated by the fact the last surviving pair of great auks were incubating an egg when they were clubbed to death; although they bred more successfully in large colonies. It is not known if a new population of Great Auks would migrate instinctively or if this is learned. Their former migratory routes are now more hazardous due to increased shipping.

At least one female specimen and one male specimen would need to be cloned to build one male and one female great auk and several more would be needed to give the new population a little more biodiversity. At the present time cloning from museum specimens is impossible, because their DNA is fragmented; numerous cells from each specimen would need to be analysed to find the complete genome (if all the information is preserved across a variety of tissues) and massive computing power would be needed to piece together millions of sequenced fragments.

Etymology

One theory connects names for the Great Auk with the origin of the word penguin, which may have come from the Welsh or Breton phrase pen gwyn, meaning "white head", referring originally to the Great Auk (although the head of the Great Auk was not in fact white, there are two white patches on its face). Later, when explorers discovered apparently similar birds in the southern hemisphere, what we now call penguins, the term was supposedly transferred to them. An alternative theory, suggested by John Latham in 1785, claims that the word penguin comes from the Latin pinguis meaning "fat", referring to the plump appearance of the bird.

References

Database entry includes justification for why this species is listed as extinct
The Rev FO Morris BA. A History of British Birds - Volume 6. 1864. Groombridge and sons, Paternoster Way, London.

External links

Great Auks described in The Birds of North America

Auks | Auks | Extinct flightless birds