great auk

a large flightless auk, Pinguinus impennis, extinct since the middle of the 19th century

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

great auk

hunters killed such large numbers, these birds became extinct in 1840s. [Ecology: Hammond, 290]

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Great Auk

(Pinguinus impennis), extinct flightless bird of the Alcidae family, close to the modern auk. Its body was up to 70 cm long; its wings were small and well-suited to paddling under water. It fed on fish.

The auk inhabited the Atlantic coast of Europe, North America, and Iceland. In the winter it apparently reached Florida and the Mediterranean Sea. It was hunted for its palatable meat, and in the 19th century it was completely destroyed. The last pair of great auks was killed in 1844 on the island of Elde, near Iceland.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Other records peg Eldey Island, in Iceland, as the place where the last pair of great auks were killed.

Extinction art: artists are confronting us with the world as it is, was and could be

The great auk, a flightless seabird similar to a penguin, Ivell's sea anemone, Mitten's beardless-moss and York groundsel, a weed, have all become extinct since 1800

500 species of plants and animals vanish because of humans, says study

QUIZ CHALLENGE: 1 Perestroika; 2 Montmorency; 3 Carousel; 4 The great auk; 5 County Cork.

LEISURE TIME: QUIZ CHALLENGE

Some of these were spectacular large organisms, such as Steller's sea cow, the Caribbean monk seal, and the great auk, whereas others, such as most of the fishes, invertebrates, and seaweeds on the list, are known primarily to specialists.

Marine biodiversity in jeopardy: the attrition of the world's coral reefs signals far broader and graver problems

If we are not careful the Liver Bird, which is already on the endangered species list, may soon go the way of the dodo, the moa and the great auk. Its roost on the Liver Building could be taken over by superlambananas and the people of Liverpool will eventually think of it as a mere legend, similar to the fire-breathing dragons of old.

Letter: You say - Save the Liver Birds!

A word sounding like penguin was first used to describe the now extinct great auk, but the choice of name is unlikely to have had Welsh input as the vanished bird only had a white spot in front of each eye.

Glyndwr and the National Eisteddfod dubbed 'best of England' for tourists

Some victims are already gone: the great auk, passenger pigeon, woodland bison, dodo (and with it the tambalocoque tree, dependent for its germination on the passage of its seed through the dodo's digestive tract).

Empire of extinction

The most notorious losses were the dodo (hunted to extinction by sailors in the 17th century) and the great auk (killed for its skin and eggs in the 19th century).

Grim toll of slaughtered species

hopes, regrets, the red-throated loon, the great auk --

A Glosa for Joshua

If we are not careful, the only sparrow that future generations see will be stuffed and standing forlornly next to the extinct great auk in the city museum.

RICHARD WILLIAMSON'S COLUMN: SPARROW AS PRIZED AS TIGER

The true northern penguin, the great auk (family Alcidae), was also flightless, a member of the Charadriiformes related to gulls, auks, and lapwings.

The last penguins

Yet Okihiro is an anthropologist who seems to be `in love' with the culture he studied, and like all lovers, may be blinded to his beloved's flaws (which in this case include the reduction of several important wildlife species, from the Great Auk onwards).

Mounties, moose and moonshine: the patterns and context of outport crime