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  Profile

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  In flight

Ghosts of the Past

Great Auk

Pinguinus impennis

• mythic
• 8 km/h
• Extinct

The original penguin of the north. Hunted to extinction, now haunts the postal service.

Population

0 — extinct; last confirmed breeding pair killed on Eldey Island, Iceland, 3 June 1844 (a probable last individual sighted off the Newfoundland Banks in 1852, the date IUCN/BirdLife use for the formal extinction)

Habitat

Remote rocky North Atlantic islands with cliff/shoreline access for breeding; open ocean and coastal waters (incl. kelp beds) for foraging and roosting in the non-breeding season

Fun fact

The Great Auk was a flightless, penguin-like seabird with vestigial ~15 cm wings, capable of diving to depths around 75 meters and holding its breath for extended periods, but its ground-nesting colonies and inability to fly made it easy prey for feather, egg, meat, and down hunters, driving it to extinction by the mid-1800s.

Range

North Atlantic: breeding colonies in Canada, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Ireland, and the UK; historical/archaeological presence from Russia to France and the Iberian Peninsula, wintering as far south as New England and southern Spain

Diet

Small schooling fish (e.g., Atlantic menhaden, capelin, sand lance), plus lumpsuckers, sculpins, cod, and crustaceans; chicks fed regurgitated fish/crustaceans and possibly plankton

Size

0.75 m

Lifespan

25 years