The Great Auk: Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife by Tim Birkhead ISBN 9781399415736, 1399415735, B0D8LHXN52 instant download

The Great Auk: Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife by Tim Birkhead ISBN 9781399415736, 1399415735, B0D8LHXN52 instant download

The life, death and afterlife of one of the true icons of extinction, the Great Auk
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 once-remote breeding colonies. Places like Funk Island, off north-east Newfoundland, became scenes of unimaginable slaughter, with birds killed in their millions. By 1800 the auks of Funk Island were gone. A scramble by private collectors for specimens of the final few birds then began, a bloody, unthinking destruction of one of the world's most extraordinary species.
But their extinction in 1844 wasn't the end of the great auk story, as 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.
In a book rich with insight and packed with...