The Great Auk: An Extinct Species

were extremely rare on both sides of the Atlantic, did the world
begin to recognize the plight of these great seabirds.
(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.
© Prepared by Jim Cornish, Gander, Newfoundland, 2003. -4