The flightless Great Auk was a northern seabird which stood about 75 to 85 cm high and weighed round about 5 kg, making it the largest member of the alcidae family. It nested in large colonies, which made it easy for people to hunt for its meat, fat, oil, eggs and down feathers. As birds became scarcer, specimen collecting became the proximate cause of their extinction. The last breeding pair was killed on the island of Eldey, off Iceland in 1844, and the last live bird was seen off the Newfoundland Banks in 1852. Today, a number of stuffed Great Auk specimens exist in museums. Words cannot describe how sad I feel whenever I learn about species that are extinct or face extinction due to human actions…
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