Great Auk Research Articles

An account of the natural history and exploitation of the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) in ‘Histoire des pesches’, an illustrated eighteenth-century manuscript

The hunting of the great auk ( Pinguinus impennis), which led to its extinction in the mid-nineteenth century, is well documented. However, the discovery of archives providing new details on this species is a rare event. A manuscript dealing with seabirds and their ‘fishing’, written in 1720–1722 by François Le Masson du Parc (1671–1741), an attaché for the Normandy maritime administration, was acquired in 2019 from an auction house. This unpublished and unstudied manuscript comprises the sixth and final volume of the ‘Histoire des pesches’. As part of a national policy to regulate French maritime fisheries, Le Masson du Parc completed the description of marine resources and fisheries in his ‘Histoire des pesches’ which was abundantly illustrated by Pierre Le Chevalier (1688–after 1763). However, this monumental work was never published and the manuscripts were dispersed after the author's death. The section recently purchased provides valuable information on the spatiotemporal evolution of many populations of North Atlantic seabirds, including the great auk, in a context of anthropogenic pressures. This species is named using several hitherto unknown Latin and vernacular names of great importance for the exploration or reinterpretation of archives. It is mentioned as common and one of the most popular birds consumed by cod fishermen on the banks of Newfoundland and that it was caught using baited hooks from boats. The text is accompanied by two illustrations, including a life drawing of three great auks, which are among the oldest known illustrations of the species. These 300-year-old archives constitute a valuable testimony for the historical ecology of this iconic, extinct bird.

Wooden replicas of great auk eggs created (c.1922) by Stephen James Goodall (1825–1896)

Wooden replicas of great auk eggs created (<i>c.</i>1922) by Stephen James Goodall (1825–1896)

Estimating the mass of the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) and its egg

Estimating the mass of the Great Auk (<i>Pinguinus impennis</i>) and its egg

The Last of the Great Auks: Oral History and Ritual Killings at St Kilda

The story of the killing of the ‘last’ great auk (Pinguinus impennis) in Britain, apparently put to death as a witch at Stac an Armin in the St Kilda archipelago c. 1840, is well known. However, other accounts claim that an auk was killed on the main island, Hirta, having been condemned to death by the celebrated men’s ‘parliament’. The historical veracity of three differing stories, which recount discreditable deeds in a deeply Christian community, is evaluated; it seems that fewest difficulties are raised if two great auks were killed, one on Hirta and the other on Stac an Armin. It is argued that this kind of avicide was a ‘ritual’ killing, to be understood in its historical context. The auk-killing probably took place in the mid to late 1840s, after the St Kilda minister had departed in the wake of the Disruption of 1843 - a particularly unsettling time within this small island community. A possible sighting of a pair of great auks on Soay (St Kilda) in 1890 is also briefly discussed.

A framework to unlock marine bird energetics.

Energetics can provide novel insights into the roles of animals, but employing an energetics approach has traditionally required extensive empirical physiological data on the focal species, something that can be challenging for those that inhabit marine environments. There is therefore a demand for a framework through which to estimate energy expenditure from readily available data. We present the energetic costs associated with important time- and energy-intensive behaviours across nine families of marine bird (including seabirds, ducks, divers and grebes) and nine ecological guilds. We demonstrate a worked example, calculating the year-round energetic expenditure of the great auk, Pinguinus impennis, under three migration scenarios, thereby illustrating the capacity of this approach to make predictions for data-deficient species. We provide a comprehensive framework through which to model marine bird energetics and demonstrate the power of this approach to provide novel, quantitative insights into the influence of marine birds within their ecosystems.

“Der fluglose Alk”: Johann Friedrich Naumann’s 1844 account of Pinguinus impennis (great auk)

This study examines the contribution of Johann Friedrich Naumann (1780–1857) to knowledge of the biology of Pinguinus impennis (great auk; “der fluglose Alk/ the flightless auk”), written for his natural history of German birds, Naturgeschichte der Vögel Deutschlands (1820–1844) and published in the twelfth and final volume in 1844, the year in which the great auk is generally accepted to have become extinct. Naumann, a farmer in a rural area of central Germany, never saw a live great auk, yet by careful examination of the literature, correspondence and conversations with other ornithologists, together with the examination of at least nine skins and three eggs, he produced an extraordinarily accurate and perceptive account of the bird. In the winter of 1830–1831, Naumann obtained his own great auk specimen – a bird in summer plumage – through Johann Heinrich Frank, one of several natural history dealers responsible for importing great auk specimens from Iceland to Denmark and Germany in the 1830s. Naumann noted several differences between the great auk and the smaller but morphologically similar Alca torda (razorbill), and suggested that the two species represented separate genera. Despite the plethora of publications relating to the great auk following its extinction, it is remarkable that Naumann’s exceptional account should have been almost entirely overlooked.

The dispersal of Vivian Vaughan Davies Hewitt’s collection of great auk (Pinguinus impennis) eggs

Private collectors and museums have coveted the eggs and skins of the great auk ( Pinguinus impennis) both before and after the species became extinct in 1844. Because of their monetary and scientific value, the provenance of most great auk eggs and skins is well documented. In the 1930s and 1940s one wealthy collector, Vivian Vaughan Davies Hewitt (1888–1965) amassed no fewer than thirteen great auk eggs (of a total of about 75 known) and four mounted skins (of 78 known). After he died in 1965, the skins and five of the eggs were sold through the dealer Spink &amp; Son Ltd, but the remaining eight eggs remained unsold until 1992 when they were purchased by Dr John Alan (“Jack”) Gibson (1926–2013) of Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, Scotland. Gibson informed several individuals that he intended to donate the eggs to the National Museum of Scotland. This did not happen, however, and the fate of these eggs has, until now, been unclear and undocumented. We present some details of how Gibson acquired and later disposed of the eight great auk eggs, and, where known, their current whereabouts.

A Holocene Seabird Extinction in Maine: The Great Auk

Seabirds are the most threatened of any living group of birds, continuing a larger pattern of elevated Holocene bird extinctions on islands and coastlines. The Great Auk (Charadriiformes: Pinguinus impennis) was found on both coasts of the Atlantic during the Holocene until its last sighting on Iceland in 1844. Far more is known about the population structure and genetic diversity of NE Atlantic populations, and the latest surviving populations were documented from the British Isles in 1834. While sightings from Canada suggest Great Auks disappeared by 1800, no systematic evaluation of extinction timing has been conducted for this coast. Determining extinction timing of the Great Auk in Maine allows a comparison to be made to populations in other areas of the Atlantic Ocean, and raises the question: was the Maine population’s fate different due to regional, cultural, or other factors? There is a single eye-witness record in the late 17th century at “Black Point”, now Scarborough, Maine. To address this gap, we compiled a radiocarbon dataset on associated material from Maine archaeological shell middens. These 91 dates from 13 sites situate the Great Auk in Maine from about 180 to 4,555 years before present. The majority of these dates are from charcoal samples, but also include shells, ceramics, and bone, and cultural contexts span the Middle and Late Ceramic Periods. To account for differences in stratigraphic control and sampling material, we assigned quality scores, and used these scores to run a sensitivity analysis in extinction timing with the GRIWM model. Disentangling the spatiotemporal dynamics of the Great Auk extinction in Maine is useful in determining how to conserve current species in decline and modern insular seabirds in Maine, such as the puffin. Future study will include new radiocarbon dating of bones as well as isotopic and morphometric analysis to unfold more chapters of the Maine Great Auk’s narrative.

The great auk in Norway: From common to locally extinct

AbstractA total of 477 bones of the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) from 53 localities and 55 periods in Norway are studied. All but two, are archaeological sites from the Holocene, mainly from 6000–2000 cal years bp. The two non‐anthropogenic sites date to the Ice Age: probably 36,000–34,500 and 14,690–12,890 years bp. The bones are mainly unburned and well preserved but fractured. Except for the open‐air sites in northern Norway, the bones are mainly from rock‐shelters and caves. In combining archive data, chronological information, and morphometrical studies, we suggest the great auk disappeared from the most southern part of Norway (and Sweden and Denmark) prior to 4000 years bp: a decline in distribution 2000 years ago: It became absent from the Norwegian coast 1000 years ago. Data suggest that it was distributed on the coast and in the fjord systems in winter and early spring. The presence of bones of juveniles/subadults indicates that it was also distributed in northern Norway in the autumn. To evaluate possible size differences, in time and space, nine bone elements have been measured according to standard recommendations. Multiple imputation was used to handle missing data before any statistical analysis. Analyses indicate that bones from Nordland are larger than from the rest of the country, while bones from the northernmost sites are smaller. At some localities, size differences, especially in total length of the bones, are found. It has not been verified if this is due to individual variation or sexual differences. The great auk became extinct in the 19th century. The study supports the theory that human predation at breeding sites was the main cause of its extinction.

The Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) had two brood patches, not one: confirmation and implications

Since the late 1600s it has been assumed that the Great AukPinguinus impenniswas similar to the Common GuillemotUria aalgeand Brünnich's GuillemotUria lomviain having a single, central brood patch. Through the examination of eight mounted museum specimens, we show that this is incorrect and that, like its closest relative the RazorbillAlca torda, the Great Auk had two lateral brood patches. We discuss how such misinformation persisted for so long. We also review the relationship between the number of brood patches and clutch size in the Alcidae. One implication of two brood patches is that the Great Auk would have incubated in a horizontal posture like the Razorbill, rather than in a semi‐upright posture like theUriaguillemots. Assuming that the Great Auk incubated like the Razorbill, it would probably have done so horizontally with its single egg pressed against one of the two lateral brood patches, positioned against the inside of one tarsus (and partially on the web of one foot), and with the wing on that side drooped to provide additional protection for the egg. Incubating in this way may have meant that the Great Auk's pyriform egg would have enabled it to use both level and sloping terrain, as in theUriaguillemots (but unlike the Razorbill). A horizontal incubation also has implications for estimates of their breeding density, which we estimate to have been around four pairs per square metre and, hence numbers on its largest known colony, Funk Island, Newfoundland (maximum 250 000 pairs).

Captain Vivian Hewitt and the fate of his collection of birds’ eggs and specimens

Vivian Hewitt was a little-known collector of natural history specimens (mainly birds and their eggs) during the early and middle years of the twentieth century. Although an obscure figure his influence on the museum world of his time – and later – was considerable and his collection of Great Auk material became almost legendary. Some of his story and that of his collection is a matter of published record but many elements remain obscure. In this study, we present previously unpublished details of Hewitt’s extraordinary life.

Alfred Newton’s second-hand histories of extinction: hearsay, gossip, misapprehension (William T. Stearn Student Essay Prize 2020)

The study of extinction was rooted in Victorian naturalists’ practices of observation and collection, but presented a challenge to the discipline’s increasing emphasis on empiricism and precision. This paper traces the role of witness testimony and hearsay accounts in early studies of extinction, as preserved in the notebooks of Cambridge zoology professor, Alfred Newton. Beginning in 1850s, Newton and his collaborators sought to trace the histories of suspected extinct species such as the British great bustard and the great auk of Iceland. With its subject absent by definition, the study of extinction relied on hearsay and rumour as well as evidence gleaned from past published accounts. Through methodical attempts to collate diverse and contradictory sources, from eyewitnesses to newspapers to local folklore and gossip, Newton demonstrated the inextricability of human activities from the practice of studying extinction. These attempts to resolve social evidence into scientific certainty were time and again frustrated by the uncertain epistemic status of his sources.

Wing Musculature Reconstruction in Extinct Flightless Auks (PinguinusandMancalla) Reveals Incomplete Convergence with Penguins (Spheniscidae) Due to Differing Ancestral States

SynopsisDespite longstanding interest in convergent evolution, factors that result in deviations from fully convergent phenotypes remain poorly understood. In birds, the evolution of flightless wing-propelled diving has emerged as a classic example of convergence, having arisen in disparate lineages including penguins (Sphenisciformes) and auks (Pan-Alcidae, Charadriiformes). Nevertheless, little is known about the functional anatomy of the wings of flightless auks because all such taxa are extinct, and their morphology is almost exclusively represented by skeletal remains. Here, in order to re-evaluate the extent of evolutionary convergence among flightless wing-propelled divers, wing muscles and ligaments were reconstructed in two extinct flightless auks, representing independent transitions to flightlessness: Pinguinus impennis (a crown-group alcid), and Mancalla (a stem-group alcid). Extensive anatomical data were gathered from dissections of 12 species of extant charadriiforms and 4 aequornithine waterbirds including a penguin. The results suggest that the wings of both flightless auk taxa were characterized by an increased mechanical advantage of wing elevator/retractor muscles, and decreased mobility of distal wing joints, both of which are likely advantageous for wing-propelled diving and parallel similar functional specializations in penguins. However, the conformations of individual muscles and ligaments underlying these specializations differ markedly between penguins and flightless auks, instead resembling those in each respective group’s close relatives. Thus, the wings of these flightless wing-propelled divers can be described as convergent as overall functional units, but are incompletely convergent at lower levels of anatomical organization—a result of retaining differing conditions from each group’s respective volant ancestors. Detailed investigations such as this one may indicate that, even in the face of similar functional demands, courses of phenotypic evolution are dictated to an important degree by ancestral starting points.

Restoration of two great auk (Pinguinus impennis) eggs: Bourman Labrey's egg and the Scarborough egg

Most of the approximately 75 known eggs of the extinct great auk ( Pinguinus impennis) are in public museums, with a few in private collections. A small number of these eggs has sustained damage, either at the time of collection or subsequently, and two of these eggs are known to have been repaired. The two eggs suffered rather different types of damage and were subsequently restored using different techniques. The first, known as Bourman Labrey's egg, sustained extensive damage sometime prior to the 1840s, when the shell was broken into numerous pieces. This egg was repaired by William Yarrell in the 1840s, and when it was restored again in 2018, it was discovered that Yarrell's restoration had involved the use of an elaborate cardboard armature. This egg is currently in a private collection. The second egg, known as the Scarborough egg, bequeathed to the Scarborough Museum in 1877, was damaged (by unknown causes) and repaired, probably by the then curator at Scarborough, W. J. Clarke, in 1906. This egg was damaged when one or more pieces were broken adjacent to the blowhole at the narrow end (where there was some pre-existing damage). The media reports at the time exaggerated the extent of the damage, suggesting that the egg was broken almost in two. Possible reasons for this exaggeration are discussed. Recent examination using a black light and ultraviolet (UV) revealed that the eggshell had once borne the words, “a Penguin's Egg”, that were subsequently removed by scraping.

Great auk (Pinguinus impennis) eggs in Bonn: correspondence between Emile Parzudaki and Robert Champley

Although Charles and Emile Parzudaki were well-connected natural history dealers of nineteenth-century Paris, many aspects of their life and work remain unknown. The example of two letters from Emile Parzudaki to Robert Champley that accompanied three great auk ( Pinguinus impennis) eggs to the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig in Bonn reveal new aspects of the Parzudaki enterprise, indicating at least some travelling and collecting activities of Charles Parzudaki beyond Europe.

New Finds, Sites and Radiocarbon Dates of Skeletal Remains of the Great Auk Pinguinus impennis from the Netherlands

The Great Auk Pinguinus impennis was a large, flightless alcid, endemic to the North Atlantic Ocean. It became extinct around 1844. Skeletal remains are used to document its (pre-)historic range. While these remains were considered rare from the southern North Sea, over the past five years 91 (sub-)fossil specimens have been recovered by citizen scientist fossil collectors from Dutch beaches that were nourished with sediments dredged from the bottom of the North Sea. Some of this material is now stored in museum collections. This paper lists the new remains and documents them through measurements and photographs. The material was recovered from fourteen new localities and one previously known locality in The Netherlands and has yielded four radiocarbon dates (1425–1300 BC till beyond 48,000 cal BP) which significantly increase the Great Auk's temporal range in this area. The sheer volume of remains alters our image of the Great Auk in the southern part of the North Sea from a rare bird to most likely a common or regular wintering bird over the past millennia.

New insights from old eggs – the shape and thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs

We compared the shape and eggshell thickness of Great Auk Pinguinus impennis eggs with those of its closest relatives, the Razorbill Alca torda, Common Guillemot Uria aalge and Brünnich's Guillemot Uria lomvia, in order to gain additional insights into the breeding biology of the extinct Great Auk. The egg of the Great Auk was most similar in shape to that of Brünnich's Guillemot. The absolute thickness of the Great Auk eggshell was greater than that of the Common Guillemot and Razorbill egg, which is as expected given its greater size, but the relative shell thickness at the equator and pointed end (compared with the blunt end) was more similar to that of the Common Guillemot. On the basis of these and other results we suggest that Great Auk incubated in an upright posture in open habitat with little or no nest, where its pyriform egg shape provided stability and allowed safe manoeuvrability during incubation. On the basis of a recent phylogeny of the Alcidae, we speculate that a single brood patch, a pyriform egg and upright incubation posture, as in the Great Auk and the two Uria guillemots, is the ancestral state, and that the Razorbill – the Great Auk's closest relative – secondarily evolved two brood patches and an elliptical egg as adaptations for horizontal incubation, which provides flexibility in incubation site selection, allowing breeding in enclosed spaces such as crevices, burrows or under boulders, as well as on open ledges.

A brief consideration of the later prehistoric appearance and possible significance of the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) in the Covesea Caves of north-east Scotland

A brief consideration of the later prehistoric appearance and possible significance of the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) in the Covesea Caves of north-east Scotland

The changing symbolic meaning of the extinct great auk and its afterlife as a museum object at the Natural History Museum of Denmark

This article examines the historical context and afterlife of the great auk as a museum object. The focus is on the changing meaning of the bird as it travels across cultural boundaries, material forms and historical periods. It starts by focusing on how the bird was contextualized within Ole Worm’s cabinet in the 17th century and then moves on to more recent museum representations. By conducting interviews with museum staff and professionals and analysis of items stored and/or exhibited at the museum, the symbolic meanings and representative functions of the great auk are brought into light. As proposed in this paper, certain characteristics, values and meanings stem from the materiality of the objects but also from their travels and re-locations. The investigation reveals how the role of the great auk in relation to collective museum (and human) challenges such as emerging ecological limits and biodiversity loss has been developing.

Demographic reconstruction from ancient DNA supports rapid extinction of the great auk.

The great auk was once abundant and distributed across the North Atlantic. It is now extinct, having been heavily exploited for its eggs, meat, and feathers. We investigated the impact of human hunting on its demise by integrating genetic data, GPS-based ocean current data, and analyses of population viability. We sequenced complete mitochondrial genomes of 41 individuals from across the species' geographic range and reconstructed population structure and population dynamics throughout the Holocene. Taken together, our data do not provide any evidence that great auks were at risk of extinction prior to the onset of intensive human hunting in the early 16th century. In addition, our population viability analyses reveal that even if the great auk had not been under threat by environmental change, human hunting alone could have been sufficient to cause its extinction. Our results emphasise the vulnerability of even abundant and widespread species to intense and localised exploitation.