A guest article by Lucia Snyderman, Vermont, USA

Figure 1. The Great Auk

Are we in the midst of a sixth mass extinction? Species extinction has largely been driven by environmental change over geological timescales, with the K-Pg extinction (the one that killed off the dinosaurs) being a notable event where a large diversity of species went extinct due to an asteroid collision. However, in more recent times, especially over the past 10,000 years, humans have begun to play an important role in the extinction process and biodiversity decline on global scales. When a species goes extinct, we are left with fragments. Sometimes bones, skins, and historical testimonies are the only remains that reflect what once was. We can only study what is available to us, and so it is from these fragments that we attempt to tell a story. We turn to the Great Auk as a lesson in human-driven extinction to guide coexistence between us and other species for the future.

The Great Auk, a large flightless seabird that went extinct in the mid-1800s, was a witch. A witch?! At least, that is what Scottish legend would have us believe. According to three Scottish fishermen, the last Great Auk ever seen alive was captured on the islet of Stac an Armin, St. Kilda, Scotland, strangled, and beaten to death in the year 1844 because it was a storm-causing witch that threatened their lives (The Extinction of the Great Auk; Figure 1). This story highlights the unknowns that remain regarding where and when the last Great Auk was, and demonstrates that not all reports may be valid.

From the bones recovered at archaeological sites and reported sightings, we know that the species occurred along both sides of the North Atlantic ocean on coastlines, and its range contracted to only a couple populations by the 1800s. Its last confirmed capture was on Eldey Island, Iceland in 1844 (Greenway, 1958). The Great Auk was first hunted for its meat by fishermen and then later for its feathers, which demanded large-scale unsustainable harvesting. This occurred more rapidly first in Europe, and then expanded west to North America. It was the commercial demand for feathers that was primarily responsible for extirpating the species (Cartwright, 1792), making the last few strongholds of individuals more vulnerable to proximate causes of extinction. English Captain George Cartwright foretold the Great Auk’s extinction on July 25, 1785 at Funk Island, Canada:

…it has been customary of late years for several crews of men to live all the summer on that island, for the sole purpose of killing birds for the sake of their feathers; the destruction which they have made is incredible. If a stop is not put soon to that practice the whole breed will be diminished to almost nothing, particularly the penguins: for this is now the only island they have left to breed upon. (Cartwright, 1792)

In 1830, a volcanic eruption on Geirfuglasker, Iceland – one of the known last strongholds for the species – hastened its extinction as the last few individuals relocated to Eldey Island, Iceland. This island was much closer to the mainland and more accessible by boat whereas travel to Geirfuglasker had been a dangerous feat (Bengston, 1984). Ironically, the last few individuals were killed by people sent by natural history museum collectors, desiring to obtain the last few individuals for their collections. Unlike today, conservation was not the priority, even for museums and ornithologists in the 19th century. In 1812, a fisherman received £15 (£1,120.37 today or $1,488.37) for selling a Great Auk to the British Museum (Grieve, 1885). Dr. Jessica Thomas conducted population viability analysis for Great Auks across their entire range, confirming that humans were primarily responsible for driving the species to extinction; all impact scenarios including a 10.5% harvest rate (far below reported historical harvest rates) resulted in rapid extinction within a few centuries (Thomas et al., 2019).

However, many unknowns remain regarding the species extinction. Was Iceland the only last stronghold for the species? Why did certain populations disappear earlier whereas others persisted longer? What do human-auk relationships show us? We seek to answer these questions with extinction timing modeling and cultural analysis.

Figure 2. Auks painted by Archibald Thorburn, including the Great Auk in the lower middle
(1860-1935).

Researchers at Middlebury College in Vermont have recently compiled the first comprehensive database of all existing radiocarbon dates and sighting dates for the Great Auk across its entire North Atlantic range (manuscript in preparation for publication). They employed extinction timing models to compare estimates between datasets and populations. Sighting-based estimates suggest extinction occurred within two decades following the last capture (i.e., the 1840s to 1860s), with the North-West Atlantic population going extinct about the same time as the North-East Atlantic population (1860 CE). However, there is much greater uncertainty of extinction for the North-West Atlantic population and radiocarbon data prematurely estimates extinction timing for the entire range, precipitating the need for more radiocarbon dates on geologically recent material. This suggests that Iceland may not be the only last stronghold for the species, but more radiocarbon dates are needed to truly determine Great Auk presence in regions of North America near the “true” extinction date.

Middlebury College researchers also approached these questions from an anthropological angle. They synthesized the existing information on Great Auk occurrence and compared human-Great Auk relationships – utilizing historical, ethnographic, and archaeological sources – across the species’ entire Holocene North Atlantic range leading up to extinction in 1844 (manuscript in preparation for publication). They found stark contrasts in Great Auk use between Indigenous and European settler-colonist communities, demonstrating that European populations were overexploited first followed by North American populations which later experienced the introduction of exploitative dynamics. For instance, the Indigenous People of Newfoundland, the Beothuk, revered the Great Auk and called it “Apponath”. In one human grave dating about four thousand years ago, there was a bone hairpin with an effigy of a Great Auk’s head as well as over 150 upper mandibles positioned around the body indicating that they constituted part of a feathered cape (Tuck, 1976). The Great Auk clearly had symbolic value in this culture. In contrast, European settler-colonists generally exploited the bird for profit and engaged in cruel and unsustainable harvest practices. This cultural analysis reveals the importance of considering differing human harvest practices when studying how a species range collapses over time, and why certain populations might persist longer than others. 

Why should we study the Great Auk, or any extinct species? Seabirds, or species that rely on the marine environment for some part of each year, are currently the most threatened group of any living group of birds. Of 346 extant seabird species, 97 (28%) are globally threatened, and another 10% are listed as Near Threatened. Three species are classified as extinct: The Large St Helena Petrel (Pterodroma rupinarum), Small St Helena Petrel (Bulweria bifax), and the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) (Croxall et al., 2012). Examining a seabird’s range collapse and extinction, such as that of the Great Auk, is of great importance as it offers insight into how seabird populations today may undergo varying trajectories of decline and recovery, as well as how to prevent future human-driven extinctions. The extinction of the Great Auk is not an isolated event but a continuation of a pattern of avian extinction on islands and coastlines. A pattern that we can change with evidence-based and human-driven conservation.

We can learn from the extinction of the Great Auk, conserve animals for future use and appreciation, and redefine the 21st century as a human success in restoring Earth’s biodiversity. As Peter Nielsen, a Danish merchant from South Iceland, wrote a century ago “the fate of the Great Auk should teach us to treat with caution those birds that are becoming fewer…and remember that we must pass the bird populations we have inherited from earlier generations on to the generations that follow us (Icelandic Museum of Natural History, 2016).

Lucia Snyderman is a recent college graduate from Middlebury College in Vermont, where she majored in Biology and studied the extinction dynamics of a flightless seabird, the Great Auk, for her senior thesis. She plans to continue investigating how humans and climate change impact species through time in graduate school.

Figure 1. The Great Auk: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/the-bizarre-story-of-britains-last-great-auk–468655904969179126/

References

Bengtson, S-A. (1984). Breeding Ecology and Extinction of the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis): Anecdotal Evidence and Conjectures. The Auk, 101(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/101.1.1

Cartwright, G. (1792). A journal of transactions and events, during a residence of nearly sixteen years on the coast of Labrador containing many interesting particulars, both of the country and its inhabitants, not hitherto known. Allin and Ridge.

Croxall, J. P., Butchart S. H. M., Lascelles, B., Stattersfield, A. J., Sullivan, B., Symes, A., & Taylor, P. (2012). Seabird conservation status, threats and priority actions: a global assessment. Bird Conservation International, 22(1), 1–34. doi:10.1017/S0959270912000020

Greenway, J. C. (1958). Extinct and vanishing birds of the world. Spec. Publ.

Grieve, S. (1885). The great auk, or garefowl (alca impennis, Linn.): Its history, archaeology, and remains. Grange Publishing Works.

Icelandic Museum of Natural History. (2015). The Great Auk – Geirfugl (Pinguinus impennis) – Treasure. The Extinction of the Great Auk. Audubon. https://johnjames.audubon.org/extinction-great-auk

Thomas J. E. (2019). Demographic reconstruction from ancient DNA supports rapid extinction of the great auk. eLife. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.47509

Tuck, J. A. (1976). Ancient People of Port au Choix. St. John’s: Institute of Social and Economic Research. Memorial University of Newfoundland.