Human Hunting Drove The Great Auk Extinct

Analysis of ancient DNA from the North Atlantic penguin driven extinct during the 19th century reveals that even abundant and widespread species can be vulnerable to intense localized exploitation

The great auk, Pinguinus impennis, was the original penguin. Millions of these large black-and-white seabirds once ranged widely across the north Atlantic Ocean from the coasts of the northeastern United States and Canada, to Greenland and Iceland, all the way to Norway, Great Britain, France, and the Iberian Peninsula (Figure 1; red area). But by 1844, these birds had all vanished. Why?

The great auk was the largest member of the alcid family that lived in modern times. The Alcidae include familiar seabirds such as razorbills, who are the closest relatives to great auks, as well as guillemots, murres and puffins. But unlike the rest of its relatives, the great auk was flightless — unique amongst birds living in the north Atlantic — and awkward on land, but they were skilled diving birds that used their wings to “fly” underwater in pursuit of fishes and to escape predators.

Then prehistoric humans appeared and began hunting great auks for their flesh and eggs. By 1500, European seafarers joined the melee after discovering the rich fishing areas around Newfoundland — and discovering that great auks were breeding in huge colonies on Funk Island. Having decimated eider ducks by the 1700s, hunters’ attention quickly fixated on great auks, whose feathers became highly prized for pillows and quilts, thereby increasing the frenzied slaughter.

It didn’t take long to obliterate the great auk population. By 1800, humans’ insatiable greed for their flesh, eggs and feathers had reduced millions of great auks to just a tiny group of birds breeding on one island just off the south-west coast of Iceland. But even there, the birds were not safe: although they were no longer profitable to hunt for food, their skins and eggs were in high demand by collectors and museums. By 1844, the last two great auks were hunted down and strangled by three fishermen on Eldey Island, near Iceland. The birds’ internal organs were eventually placed in a museum. Their single egg, crushed in the hunt, was discarded. Their skins — which could fetch an entire year’s wages — were lost.

Considering the speed of this extinction event, it’s worth asking whether other factors played a role in hastening it: Were great auks already headed for extinction before intensive hunting began? Or was rampant human profiteering and destruction sufficient to drive the species extinct across its vast range?

“Despite the well-documented history of exploitation since the 16th century, it is unclear whether hunting alone could have been responsible for the species’ extinction, or whether the birds were already in decline due to natural environmental changes”, lead author Jessica Thomas said in a press release. Now a postdoctoral researcher at Swansea University, Dr Thomas completed this study as part of her PhD research at Bangor University and at the University of Copenhagen.

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