The Great Auk

The Great Auk once ruled the Atlantic, Now extinct, the great auk once ranged from the shores of Northern Europe, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, and down the eastern seaboard of the United States. The great auk was a marvel of evolution; a flightless seabird built for the ocean, not the sky. Standing nearly 3 feet tall with a sleek black back and white belly, it resembled a penguin but belonged to a different lineage entirely. Its powerful wings, though useless for flight, made it a swift underwater hunter, feasting on fish and crustaceans with ease.

Great Auks nested in dense colonies on remote, rocky islands from Canada to Iceland. Their eggs, large and speckled, were laid directly on bare stone, making them vulnerable to human exploitation. By the 16th century, European sailors and settlers began harvesting the birds for meat, oil, and feathers. Their inability to fly made them tragically easy targets.

The last confirmed pair was killed in 1844 on Eldey Island, Iceland—one strangled for a museum specimen, the other crushed while incubating its egg.

From Joe Batt’s Arm you can walk to a bronze statue of a Great Auk commemorating this great bird. This bronze auk is facing another bronze auk located in Iceland, both looking at each other.

Interestingly, we talked to the man who installed the bronze auk at the grocery store! He saw our Washington license plates and chatted us up because his sister lives in Seattle.Read more