The Great Auk

The life, death and afterlife of one of the true icons of extinction, the Great Auk

Since 1950 more than seventy percent of the world’s seabirds have been lost through human activity. The Great Auk was the first species to go. A goose-sized seabird superbly adapted for underwater flight, their lives were idyllic prior to the appearance of humans: three months ashore to breed, the rest of the time riding the ocean waves.

However, Great Auks had one main predator – humans. Having harried the bird mercilessly for centuries in the east, the Europeans who stumbled upon the Great Auks’ New World breeding colonies in the 16th century couldn’t believe their luck. Seabird colonies became fast-food restaurants for hungry sailors, with mariners gorging themselves on the liver-flavoured auk flesh for more than two centuries.

The last two were killed in 1844, but the Great Auk lived on, with collectors obsessing over their skins, eggs and skeletons through dodgy dealings involving staggering amounts of money. 180 years on, leading ornithologist Tim Birkhead found himself the recipient of the archive of a man who accumulated more Great Auk skins and eggs than anyone else.

Rich with insight and packed with tales of birds and of people, this astonishing book reveals the Great Auk’s life before humanity, its death on that fateful day in 1844, and the unrelenting subsequent quest for its remains – the first seabird ruthlessly destroyed by human actions, and an all-powerful symbol of human folly and the necessity of conservation.