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The Great Auk was a large flightless seabird that lived in the North Atlantic until it went extinct in the mid-1800s. It matters as a historical example of human overexploitation, as the species was hunted to extinction for its feathers, eggs, and meat.
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The great auk (Pinguinus impennis), also known as the garefowl or penguin, is an extinct species of flightless alcid that first appeared around 400,000 years ago and was driven to extinction by human exploitation in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus. It was not closely related to the penguins of the Southern Hemisphere, which were named for their resemblance to this species.
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. During the non-breeding season, the auk foraged 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.
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1844 in the environmentAlcinaeAnimal taxa named by Carl LinnaeusAtlantic auksBird extinctions since 1500Birds described in 1758Birds in the United KingdomBirds of GreenlandBirds of IcelandBirds of ScandinaviaExtinct animals of CanadaExtinct animals of the United StatesExtinct birds of Atlantic islands