The Great Auk: An Extinct Species
The Great Auk: An Extinct Species
The Great Auk: An Extinct Species
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were extremely rare on both sides of the Atlantic, did the world<br />
begin to recognize the plight of these great seabirds.<br />
(10) Surprisingly, the reaction to the decline in the <strong>Great</strong><br />
<strong>Auk</strong>’s population caused additional problems for the bird.<br />
Instead of protecting the auk and preventing the species from<br />
being wiped-out, museums and nature collectors all over<br />
Europe killed them for display specimens. In 1830, an auk<br />
skin sold for $16, nearly equal to the average monthly wage<br />
of a common worker at that time.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Last Birds<br />
(11) <strong>The</strong> final end to the <strong>Great</strong> <strong>Auk</strong> began in the early 19th<br />
century. During a war between England and France around<br />
1813, sailors eager to obtain fresh food once again harvested<br />
auks from colonies in Iceland. One colony was an unfortunate<br />
victim of nature. A volcano on a nesting island erupted and<br />
then sank into the sea, wiping out its entire population of birds. A<br />
bizarre event in Scotland in 1844 ended the auk there. A lone auk<br />
on the Hebrides Islands off Scotland was blamed for causing a<br />
severe storm. <strong>The</strong> local people put the bird on trial. A jury found the<br />
auk guilty of witchcraft and stoned it to death. <strong>The</strong> saddest story<br />
though belongs to the last known nesting pair. On June 3rd, 1844,<br />
three men set out in search of auks sighted off Iceland. <strong>The</strong>y found<br />
a male, female and one egg. Greedy for the money the birds could<br />
bring, they shot the two birds and crushed the egg. No auks were<br />
ever seen again. <strong>The</strong>y had become extinct.<br />
(12) Many other species of animals around the world are<br />
endangered because of overhunting. <strong>The</strong>y are doomed to<br />
extinction like the great auk if nothing is done to prevent this from<br />
happening.<br />
© Prepared by Jim Cornish, Gander, Newfoundland, 2003. -4