Today in the History of Science and Technology | 1844·7·3 The last "Arctic penguin" in the world became extinct

180 years ago today, on July 3, 1844, the last pair of great auks in the world were killed while incubating eggs on Fire Island near Iceland, and they officially became extinct.

The Great Auk, also known as the Great Petrel, is also called the Arctic Giant Penguin because of its similar appearance to a penguin. It is a flightless bird that once existed widely on various islands around the Atlantic Ocean, but became extinct due to massive hunting by humans. Therefore, July 3rd of each year is designated as "World Seabird Day". The establishment of this special holiday aims to raise the global public's awareness of seabird protection.

◆The largest bird in the family Auklet

When it comes to animals at the two poles of the earth, I believe that the first thing people think of is the polar bears living in the Arctic and the penguins in the Antarctic. Perhaps you don’t know that there used to be a kind of bird in the Arctic that was very similar to the penguins in the Antarctic. They also had black and white feathers, could walk upright, were good at swimming and diving, but could not fly.

This bird is the great auk. In fact, the English name "Penguin" originally belonged to them. However, humans later discovered other birds very similar to them in the southern hemisphere, so people also called these newly discovered birds "Penguin", which is what we now call penguins.

According to modern biological classification, penguins belong to the class Aves, order Sphenisciformes, and family Sphenisciidae, while great auks belong to the class Aves, order Charadriiformes, and family Alcidae, so they are different species. Scientists believe that the reason they are so similar is actually the result of "convergent evolution."

Because of this, people also call the great auk the "Arctic penguin". Unfortunately, due to the indiscriminate hunting and killing by humans in the past, their numbers have decreased sharply. Eventually, humans turned the last "Arctic penguins" into cold specimens in the name of protection.

The great auk is 75 to 80 centimeters long and weighs about 5 kilograms. It is the largest bird in the auk family. Although they are called "Arctic penguins", they do not only live within the Arctic Circle. In fact, they were once a very common bird in the North Atlantic, with a wide distribution range, from Scandinavia and the Mediterranean coast in the east to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in the west, from the Mediterranean coast and Florida in the south to within the Arctic Circle in the north. They can be found everywhere.

◆The bird with the longest diving time

From the perspective of evolution, the great auk is a very interesting example of convergent evolution. It has nothing to do with penguins. Scientists have confirmed through analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences that what we now call razorbill auks, murres and Atlantic puffins are closely related to the great auks.

The Great Auk's movements on land are slow and clumsy. It needs to use its wings to walk on uneven ground. Therefore, the Great Auk rarely lives on land except during the breeding season. For a long time, in order to dive into the sea to hunt, the Great Auk made great sacrifices and gave up the ability to fly. On the water surface, they can only glide low, but their deep diving skills are very impressive.

The Great Auk has a perfectly streamlined body with a smooth surface and its feet close to the back of its body, which fully complies with the principles of fluid mechanics. After diving into the water, its flat beak will not encounter too much resistance in the water. Although its wings have degenerated and are very short, they can generate strong thrust when they are waved. These characteristics make the Great Auk as flexible as a fish in the water. It not only swims very fast, but also has aggressiveness. The average diving depth of the Great Auk is 75 meters, and the deepest can reach 130 meters. Scientists have concluded that the Great Auk is likely to be the bird on earth that can dive the longest and deepest.

Great auks like to live in groups, often in hundreds or thousands. They may practice monogamy, and the couples are very loving. Great auks do not have the habit of building nests, and even if they do, they are very simple, just picking up a few hays on the island and putting them on the rock shed. What is even more lamentable is that their reproductive ability is very weak, and they only lay one egg each year, and it is laid on the open ground.

◆Hunted in large numbers by humans

According to known archaeological research, humans have hunted the great auk since prehistoric times, but due to the limited range of human activities in ancient times and the large number of great auks, their survival was not threatened by humans for a long time. But in the 16th century, European fleets began to conduct large-scale ocean exploration, and the nightmare of the great auk officially began.

Like penguins today, the flightless great auks move very slowly on land. They are also birds that like to live in groups. In addition, they are not sufficiently vigilant against humans. When they see humans approaching, they often do not run away immediately, and even watch curiously. This makes them very easy to be caught by humans. The crew at the time recorded: "Catching them is as easy as picking up stones. In less than half an hour, the great auks we caught filled two ships."

At first, people only wanted to get the meat, eggs and fat of the great auk, because the meat and eggs can be used as food, the meat can be used to make bait, and the fat can be used as fuel. After a while, people found that the feathers of the great auk are light and warm, and can be used to make valuable down products (such as pillows, mattresses, hats, etc.).

So people began to constantly look for habitats where great auks gathered in large numbers, and then hunted them without restraint. In order to carry away more feathers at a time, they even plucked the feathers of the great auks after catching them, and then abandoned them, leaving them to fend for themselves in the cold wind...

As time went by, the great auk's habitats were destroyed one after another. Because the great auk has a weak reproductive ability, usually a pair of great auks only lay one egg a year. Therefore, their reproduction rate cannot make up for the loss of their population caused by humans.

The last pair of great auks

As a result of indiscriminate hunting and killing by humans, their numbers decreased rapidly. By the middle of the 16th century, almost all of their habitats on the European side of the Atlantic Ocean had been destroyed by humans. In the early 18th century, their only habitat on the entire planet was a small island at the southwest tip of Iceland.

This small island is called "Great Auk Rock" because it is surrounded by cliffs and it was difficult for human ships at the time to dock here, so the great auk was able to survive here.

However, the nightmare of the great auk did not stop. In 1830, an underwater volcanic eruption caused the "Great Auk Rock" to disappear in the huge waves. For the surviving great auks, this was undoubtedly a catastrophe. Fortunately, some great auks escaped from this disaster and then migrated to a small island called "Eldi" about 13 kilometers away.

By this time, the great auk had become extremely rare. According to relevant records, in 1835, there were only about 50 great auks on "Eldi" Island. By then people had long realized how precious the great auk was, and some museums had also begun to think about "protecting" the great auk, but their approach was a bit incomprehensible: they offered a large reward for great auk specimens, with the reason being that these specimens could be used for publicity.

With a huge reward on the line, the sailors flocked to the island of Elde to look for the Great Auk, and one after another, the Great Auk was captured. In 1844, a group of fishermen risked their lives to go to the cold North Atlantic Ocean to look for the few but expensive Great Auks in order to make a huge profit. On July 3 of that year, on the island of Elde near Iceland, the last Great Auk couple was killed while incubating their eggs, and the last Great Auk egg was also taken away.

In fact, this pair of great auks were the last great auks on Earth, and their remains were later made into specimens. In this way, humans turned the last "Arctic penguins" into cold specimens in the name of protection, and since then, this unique bird has been declared extinct on Earth. According to statistics, there are only a few complete skeletons of great auks and thousands of great auk bones in existence, and a total of about 75 great auk furs and 75 great auk eggs are stored in museums around the world. In order to commemorate the great auk, the magazine sponsored by the American Ornithological Society was named "The Great Auk" and used the great auk as the cover.

Comprehensive from "National Wetlands" and Charming Science