GREAT AUK (HB)

The great auk was a flightless, goose-sized bird superbly adapted for life at sea. 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. The species went extinct in 1844. The great auk remains a symbol of human folly and the necessity of conservation. This book tells its story.