The Great Auk: an Extinct Species

The Great Auk: An Extinct Species

The First Extinction in North America in Historical Times

(1) The Great Auk was the first species of bird to disappear during historical times in North American. Its extinction was not a natural one like the disappearance of saber-toothed tigers or dinosaurs that once roamed parts of this continent too. The Great Auk is lost forever because of human greed and a complete disrespect for nature.

(2) The Great Auk was the only flightless bird in the Northern Hemisphere and the only flightless bird known to Europeans until the exploration of south Africa and Antarctica in the early 1600's.

Appearance

(3) The great auk was a large bird, approximately 5 kg in mass and 70 cm in height. It had a black back and head. Because the word “penguin” means “white patches in front of it eyes”, the great auk was considered the original penguin. The auk’s bill was large and black. Its stomach and breast were white. The white belly protected the bird from predators swimming below it and the black back protected it against predators flying overhead.

(4) The Great Auk was an excellent swimmer. It used its stubby featherless wings to “fly” through the water. But unlike gannets, which plunge into the sea while in flight, the auk dove from a floating position on the ocean’s surface to pursue prey like herring and caplin. On land, the auk was slow. Its waddle walk made it an easy target for hunters.

(5) The Great Auk nested in large groups called colonies. The female laid a single pear-shaped creamy white egg on the bare rock of some of the low lying islands that dot the north Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland, Iceland, Scotland and Greenland. Since it was flightless, the female had to lay its egg near sea level and not on the high rock ledges in the cliffs like many other seabirds. That too made it vulnerable to hunters.

The Exploitation Begins

(6) Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the Great Auk and its eggs were used as food by the Beothuks, the now extinct native people of Newfoundland. The Beothuks paddled their ocean going canoes to the Funk Islands just off the northeast coast of Newfoundland where the auk lived in great numbers. They took only the birds they needed, leaving the population healthy.

(7) The Europeans discovered the Great Auk in the early 1500s. At first, they used the bird to indicate the position of the Grand Banks, the rich fishing grounds off the east coast of Newfoundland. Later, they used the auk for food. Fishermen and sailors alike discovered that the birds were easy to catch. On trans-Atlantic voyages, their ships would stop at the auk’s

© Prepared by Jim Cornish, Gander, Newfoundland, 2003. -2- nesting islands and sailors would herd hundreds of them along a plank to the ships’ decks. Some of the birds were killed and eaten immediately. Some were killed and preserved in salt to be eaten later. Sometimes the auks were kept alive in the ships’ hulls to serve as fresh meat later in the voyages. The fact they were edible contributed to auk’s extinction too.

Controlling The Slaughter

(8) Although the Great Auk was hunted relentlessly and in great numbers from the beginning of 16th century, the effects of the slaughter were not noticed until two hundred years later –– and even then no serious efforts were made to protect them from jeopardy. In 1775, the government of Nova Scotia asked Great Britain to ban the killing of auks. This was done. Anyone caught killing auks for feathers or taking their eggs for food was whipped in public. Fishermen, however, were still allowed to use the bird as bait and so the auks’ numbers continued to decline.

(9) Other large Great Auk colonies in Iceland were being raided for food, oil and feathers too. The Icelanders harvested the birds in rotation. This means they killed large numbers of birds one year and then left the colony alone the next to enable their numbers to increase. Eventually, though, the hunting pressure became too great and Icelandic populations declined. Only when the birds

(10) Surprisingly, the reaction to the decline in the Great Auk’s population caused additional problems for the bird. Instead of protecting the auk and preventing the species from being wiped-out, museums and nature collectors all over Europe killed them for display specimens. In 1830, an auk skin sold for $16, nearly equal to the average monthly wage of a common worker at that time.

The Last Birds

(11) The final end to the Great Auk began in the early 19th century. During a war between England and France around 1813, sailors eager to obtain fresh food once again harvested auks from colonies in Iceland. One colony was an unfortunate victim of nature. A volcano on a nesting island erupted and then sank into the sea, wiping out its entire population of birds. A bizarre event in Scotland in 1844 ended the auk there. A lone auk on the Hebrides Islands off Scotland was blamed for causing a severe storm. The local people put the bird on trial. A jury found the auk guilty of witchcraft and stoned it to death. The saddest story though belongs to the last known nesting pair. On June 3rd, 1844, three men set out in search of auks sighted off Iceland. They found a male, female and one egg. Greedy for the money the birds could bring, they shot the two birds and crushed the egg. No auks were ever seen again. They had become extinct.

(12) Many other species of animals around the world are endangered because of overhunting. They are doomed to extinction like the great auk if nothing is done to prevent this from happening.

Visual Literacy: Using a Venn Diagram

Study the picture of a penguin and the great auk, which was a penguin too. Create a Venn diagram to compare the two birds.

© Prepared by Jim Cornish, Gander, Newfoundland, 2003. -5- Was the Auk Really a Penguin? You Decide Use the Venn diagram below and the images on the previous page to compare and contrast the great auk and a penguin.

Directions: Highlight the keywords in the question. Use the keywords to find the topic containing the keywords. Locate the information to answer the question. Write the answer in complete sentences and in your very best handwriting.

1. Why did the Great Auk become extinct? 2. What three characteristics did the great auk have that contributed to its extinction? 3. How was the great auk important to sailors and fishermen? 4. Why did a ban on hunting great auks not save the species? 5. What steps did the Icelanders take to keep hunting the great auk and yet keep the population of the colonies strong? 6. In what ways did the great auk’s colouration protect it from natural predators? 7. What is the purpose of the map on page two of the passage on the great auk? 8. Based on the Venn diagram activity, do you think the great auk was a penguin? Why?

Just the Facts

1. Write five facts about the Great Auk you found the most interesting.

Thinking About What You Have Learned

1. There is an expression that goes like this: “Those that ignore their history and doomed to repeat it?” What does this mean and how does it apply to the great auk?

© Prepared by Jim Cornish, Gander, Newfoundland, 2003. -7- Reading For Understanding Cause and Effect One thing happens that then causes something else to occur. This is what “cause and effect means.” For example, if tripping over a branch is the cause, the effect is falling down. Below are some cause and effect statements based on the passage on the great auk. Complete the statement that is missing from each pair.

Cause Effect there was a lack of fresh meat on early sailing ships

sailors discovered the birds couldn’t fly

numbers of great auk began to decline

population on an island off Iceland destroyed

auk feathers made good hat decorations

the auk was declared a threatened species

1r 2 3i 4 5 6 7m

8c 9 10 o 11 i 12 e 13 k 14 i

1. At risk. (8) 2. Describes the walk of the great auk. (4) 3. Name of the nesting population. (5) 4. The seventeenth letter of the alphabet. 5. Welsh word meaning “white patch around eyes”. (3) 6. Number of eggs laid by a great auk female. (5) 7. Auks were collected to be used as these in museums. (10) 8. These individuals, working for museums, also caused the extinction of the auk. (10) 9. This area of the great auk was largely white. (3) 10. An animal that hunts another animal for food. (3) 11. Occurs when no individuals of a species exist. (1) 12. Birds with wings but do not fly. (2) 13. These native people hunted the auk and collected its eggs for food. (6) 14. One of the reasons often cited for extinction of a animal species. (12)

This french explorer first noticed the value of the great auk for sailors: ______

The globe to the right shows two hemispheres of the earth and well as the imaginary line that separates them. Study the globe and complete the following.

Jot down the information that completes the following. a. the two hemispheres pictured on the globe ______b. the line that separates the two hemispheres ______c. the continents that are completely above this line ______d. the continents that are present in both hemispheres ______e. the number of degrees from the equator to the north and south poles ______f. the number of degrees of the equator ______