“The Last Of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction” by Gisli Palsson is written like a chronicle. Though it is a work discussing finality, it is a moving and well thought out tale of never before seen information in print about the Great Auk. It will be published and released on Feb. 6.
To see a photograph of this dignified species, one would wonder how such an animal could be slaughtered on Eldey Island, one of its well-known breeding grounds, and the last of its kind by most accounts. It was the final resting place for some of Pinguinus impennis.
The Natural History Museum of Denmark has an erect taxidermied individual and jars containing some of the viscera of Great Auks killed on the 1844 expedition. There is a second bird housed at the same museum in winter plumage, differentiating the two birds.
We meet two men interested in the gare-fowl, John Wolley (1823-1859) and Alfred Newton (1829-1907) of Great Britain, the principals in this book, who were under the impression that the species was in serious decline with rare sightings. Mass killings of the Great Auk occurred in 1808 and 1813, even before our leaders were born.
They set off for their trip in 1858 after they hired a boat, captain, oarsmen, and guide/translator. Conjecture then was if a species was unseen, it was simply hiding.
The gare-fowl books are a five-volume manuscript in two parts best known as the work on the most extensive interviews, documents, and about 900 photographs regarding the Great Auk that are irreplaceable. They are over 160 years old housed in Cambridge, with no printed copy, all original handwriting, almost all written by John Wolley in diary format. It includes anything that has to do with the Great Auk, commencing with the Danish captain on the way to Reykjavik.
There are even memories written in Icelandic including “Tales of Great Auks and Great Auk Skerries, Listing Fatal Voyages since 1629 and 1639.”
The gare-fowl books are a unique record of the 1858 expedition, providing vivid, almost real accounts of the extinction of the Great Auk, a long investigation into extinction. Accounts from contemporaries confirmed the critical decline of the Great Auk population by offering unfathomable amounts of money for bird remains.
Newton may have been from the nineteenth century, but his ideas on annihilation being caused by humanity show his prowess in intellect regarding extinction. He was a century and a half ahead of his day in conservation efforts.
It is a pity that more people could not read the gare-fowl books, they would understand the gravity of what the last Great Auks paid with their lives to teach humanity.
This book is an important part of an innocent species’ life. Though geirfugl was a flightless alcid, humanity has finally learned to save species prior to extinction after nearly two hundred years of mistakes. Who knows what our hemisphere could have had or if penguin history would play out differently.
Deb Hirt is a wild bird rehabilitator and professional photographer living in Stillwater.
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