BIRDS OF ICELAND : Pinguinus impennis, great auk

Pinguinus impennis; If you go to Iceland you will not see the great auk. In fact no one today will ever see the great auk alive anywhere because it is extinct! However there Iceland has a special link to this bird. It was on the island of Eldey where in the 19th century ship-wrecked Icelandic fishermen killed the last ever seen living individual. Given the situation these men were in, they killed it in order to stay alive themselves. This large bird was a seabird that was unable to fly! As such, its life style was much more like the southern Hemisphere penguin species than any bird in the northern hemisphere. Also its Latin name reveals the superficial relationship to the penguins of today. Its inability to fly and the spread of a species named Homo sapiens sealed its fate like the Dodo. Anyone more interested in this extinct bird should read the pages of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology of the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada on this bird. You can jump to it here

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