Great auk

Great auk Temporal range: Neogene – 1852 AD [1] PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Specimen No. 8 and replica egg in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
Conservation status
Extinct (1852)  (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Presumed Extinct (1852)  (NatureServe)[3]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Alcidae
Genus:	†Pinguinus Bonnaterre, 1791
Species:	†P. impennis
Binomial name
†Pinguinus impennis (Linnaeus, 1758)
Approximate range (in blue) with known breeding sites indicated by yellow marks[4][5]
Synonyms
List Alca impennis Linnaeus, 1758 Plautus impennis (Linnaeus, 1758) Brünnich, 1772 Pingouin impennis (Linnaeus, 1758) Buffon, 1817 Alca borealis Forster, 1817 Chenalopex impennis (Linnaeus, 1758) Vieillot, 1818 Alca major Boie, 1822 Mataeoptera impennis (Linnaeus, 1758) Gloger, 1842

The great auk (Pinguinus impennis) is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus. It is not closely related to the Southern Hemisphere birds now known as penguins, which were discovered later by Europeans and so named by sailors because of their physical resemblance to the great auk, which were called penguins.

It bred on rocky, remote islands with easy access to the ocean and a plentiful food supply, a rarity in nature that provided only a few breeding sites for the great auks. When not breeding, they spent their time foraging in the waters of the North Atlantic, ranging as far south as northern Spain and along the coastlines of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Ireland, and Great Britain.

The bird was 75 to 85 centimetres (30 to 33 inches) tall and weighed about 5 kilograms (11 pounds), making it the largest alcid to survive into the modern era, and the second-largest member of the alcid family overall (the prehistoric Miomancalla was larger).^[6] It had a black back and a white belly. The black beak was heavy and hooked, with grooves on its surface. During summer, great auk plumage showed a white patch over each eye. During winter, the great auk lost these patches, instead developing a white band stretching between the eyes. The wings were only 15 cm (6 in) long, rendering the bird flightless. Instead, the great auk was a powerful swimmer, a trait that it used in hunting. Its favourite prey were fish, including Atlantic menhaden and capelin, and crustaceans. Although agile in the water, it was clumsy on land. Great auk pairs mated for life. They nested in extremely dense and social colonies, laying one egg on bare rock. The egg was white with variable brown marbling. Both parents participated in the incubation of the egg for around six weeks before the young hatched. The young left the nest site after two to three weeks, although the parents continued to care for it.

The great auk was an important part of many Native American cultures, both as a food source and as a symbolic item. Many Maritime Archaic people were buried with great auk bones. One burial discovered included someone covered by more than 200 great auk beaks, which are presumed to be the remnants of a cloak made of great auks' skins. Early European explorers to the Americas used the great auk as a convenient food source or as fishing bait, reducing its numbers. The bird's down was in high demand in Europe, a factor that largely eliminated the European populations by the mid-16th century. Scientists^[who?] soon^[when?] began to realize that the great auk was disappearing and it became the beneficiary of many early environmental laws, but these proved ineffectual^{[citation needed]}.

Its growing rarity increased interest from European museums and private collectors in obtaining skins and eggs of the bird. On 3 June 1844, the last two confirmed specimens were killed on Eldey, off the coast of Iceland, ending the last known breeding attempt. Later reports of roaming individuals being seen or caught are unconfirmed. A report of one great auk in 1852 is considered by some to be the last sighting of a member of the species. The great auk is mentioned in several novels, and the scientific journal of the American Ornithological Society was named The Auk (now Ornithology) in honour of the bird until 2021.