The Last Of Their Kind...


On June 3, 1844, on the small rocky island of Eldey off the Icelandic coast...



...a breeding pair of the genus "Great Auk" killed by sports hunters.



The scientific name of the birds is "Pinguinus impennis" because they were originally thought to be a subspecies of penguins - but in fact they are flying birds that could grow to between 70 and 85 cm in size...:



These two wantonly great auks were the last of their kind - they've since gone extinct. It's not often that the exact date of extinction of a species is known, but in this case it is.

Nowadays, great auks can only be seen stuffed in natural history museums - like here in Leipzig...:





Here is a cast of a Great Auk egg that belongs to the inventory of the Museum Wiesbaden...:



On Iceland since 2012 a twice life-size bronze sculpture by US artist Todd McGrain has commemorated the extinction of the great auk ...:



The sculpture stands on the coast of Reykjanesbær Municipality, looking towards the island of Eldey, where the last two survivors of her kind were killed...:

Very Sad