2007.2 - AUK

I always feel sad when I look at this piece because people almost purposely drove these magnificent birds to extinction only a hundred fifty years ago. It’s like getting to the party just after the last piece of birthday cake was thrown into the garbage. By legend, the last two in existence were clubbed to death while in captivity because the people who had them thought their calls sounded like witches in the night, and they were blamed for a storm. If only. These flightless birds are the northern hemisphere’s answer to the emperor penguin. They were over 30 inches tall. I have a book that shows photos of all of the stuffed auks in existence. Sad.

I guess the nearest we still have to these birds are auklets, murres and puffins. When I was in graduate school doing fin whale research at the Icelandic whaling station in Kvalfiordur, I went on a hike with another student, John Long, who had no problem sticking his hand in the holes where they nest, and pulling out a puffin so we could look closely. No, he didn’t hurt them. He is very gentle. It just makes me all the sadder that we are missing the tiny puffin’s great relative.