The Great Auk – Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife – Tim Birkhead

18 October, 2025 at 16:00:00

One of the true icons of extinction and the necessity of conservation, the great auk was a flightless, goose-sized bird superbly adapted for life at sea. Fat, flush with feathers and easy to capture, the birds were in trouble whenever sailors visited their remote breeding colonies and birds were killed in their millions. Their extinction in 1844 wasn’t the end of the great auk story. The bird went on to have a remarkable afterlife; skins, eggs and skeletons became the focus for dozens of collectors in a story of pathological craving and unscrupulous dealings that goes on to this day.

Tim Birkhead is an ornithologist and Emeritus Professor of Behaviour and Evolution at the University of Sheffield