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The Great Auk
- Author
- Tim Birkhead
- Narrator
- John Sackville
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 13 March 2025
- Run Time
- 6 hours 36 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
The life, death and afterlife of one of the true icons of extinction, the Great Auk
The great auk was a flightless, goose-sized bird superbly adapted for life at sea. This ‘penguin of the north’ once ranged across the North Atlantic, diving deep to exploit vast shoals of herring and mackerel. The summer months saw great auks massing together in large breeding colonies; fat, fleshy, flush with feathers and easy to capture, the birds were desirable commodities for mariners from antiquity. The rate of destruction increased when European sailors began to visit their once-remote breeding colonies. Places like Funk Island, off north-east Newfoundland, would soon become scenes of unimaginable slaughter, with birds killed in their millions. The auks were boiled alive to remove their feathers for stuffing mattresses, or killed and salted for consumption at sea. No bird could withstand such sustained ferocity, and by 1800 the auks of Funk Island were gone.
A few hundred hung on in Iceland, but not for long; no sooner had the Icelandic birds become known than a scramble by private collectors for specimens began, a bloody, unthinking destruction of one of the world’s most extraordinary birds. The last pair was killed in June 1844, with their single egg smashed in the process.
But this wasn’t the end of the great auk story, as the bird went on to have a most extraordinary afterlife; skins, eggs and skeletons became the focus for dozens of collectors in a story of pathological craving and unscrupulous dealings that goes on to this day, almost two hundred years after the bird became extinct.
Rich with insight and packed with tales of birds and of people, this book reveals the great auk’s life before humanity, its death on the killing shores of the North Atlantic, and the unrelenting subsequent quest for its remains. Tim Birkhead’s research has revealed previously unimagined aspects of the bird’s life and also, unexpectedly, its afterlife; in a curious twist, Birkhead found himself the recipient of the archive of the man who accumulated more great auk skins and eggs than anyone else.
The great auk remains a symbol of human folly and the necessity of conservation. This book tells its story.
Critics Review
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Mesmerising ... There’s something endlessly pleasurable in listening to a person talk about a subject on which they’re both an enthusiast and an authority, and Tim Birkhead has both qualities in abundance.
The Telegraph
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As Tim Birkhead reminds us in this wide-ranging and deeply researched study, human exploitation of the species goes back millennia … A lively and meticulous book.
The Spectator
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A sad but engrossing elegy … The story of the great auk, movingly told in this book, continues. This remarkable bird is not forgotten.
Mail on Sunday
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'An investigation and a homage; its a joy to come across some nerdish enthusiasm'
The Daily Telegraph
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A fascinating book… The Great Auk tells the story of an iconic bird.
Literary Review
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Quite simply, one of the best natural history books I have read.
Birdwatch
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Tim Birkhead's narrative is a poignant elegy for what has been lost… Over a century after its extinction, the great auk still has a life of its own.
Natural History
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Birkhead is not only one of the most eminent seabird specialists, who has been working intensively and continuously on guillemots for more than 50 years, but also an eloquent writer and excellent science communicator … The extinction of the great auk is a portent to shake us out of our ignorance and force us to rethink our lifestyles. Will it open our eyes?
Die Vogelwarte
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Tim Birkhead ably recreates the life of the flightless bird, and the far more bizarre after-story of humans fighting over skins, skeletons and egg collections … it’s a rallying call for conservation.
The Tablet
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Weaves a fascinating 20,000-year history of encounters with these intriguing birds into a deeper narrative exploring the tragedy of how human wonder and passion can mutate into destructive obsession.
Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred
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The story of the Great Auk reveals how the attitudes and values of people cause entire species to be condemned to extinction. From the fragments of written historical accounts and the eggs and skins collected as the species teetered at the edge of oblivion, Birkhead expertly charts the demise and afterlife of a bird that while to this day is often discussed will never again be seen alive. This is the brilliantly told true story of a legend.
Tony Juniper
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The many strands that are the mark of the author, Tim Birkhead, are drawn together to tell the story of the Great Auk that is both expert and fascinating … A lifetime of experience and deep passion are woven into the pages of this book, and we are left with the message that all of us have a duty to make sure that this tragedy must not happen again.
Mary Colwell, author of Curlew Moon
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What a story! I was completely gripped by both the biology and the very human tale and Tim Birkhead’s perseverance in following it, not to mention his eloquence in telling it.
Matt Ridley, author of The Red Queen
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A comprehensive and beautifully written account of this extinct bird.
Errol Fuller, author of Lost Animals
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Tim Birkhead
- Narrator
- John Sackville
- Duration
- 6 hours 36 minutes
- Release Date
- 13 March 2025
- ISBN
- 9781399415705
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Endangered species and extinction of species, Zoology: birds (ornithology), Popular science, Wildlife: birds and birdwatching: general interest
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents The Great Auk: Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife by Tim Birkhead, read by John SackvilleThe life, death and afterlife of one of the true icons of extinction, the Great Auk The great auk was a flightless, goose-sized bird superbly adapted for life at sea. This ‘penguin of the north’ once ranged across the North Atlantic, diving deep to exploit vast shoals of herring and mackerel. The summer months saw great auks massing together in large breeding colonies; fat, fleshy, flush with feathers and easy to capture, the birds were desirable commodities for mariners from antiquity. The rate of destruction increased when European sailors began to visit their once-remote breeding colonies. Places like Funk Island, off north-east Newfoundland, would soon become scenes of unimaginable slaughter, with birds killed in their millions. The auks were boiled alive to remove their feathers for stuffing mattresses, or killed and salted for consumption at sea. No bird could withstand such sustained ferocity, and by 1800 the auks of Funk Island were gone. A few hundred hung on in Iceland, but not for long; no sooner had the Icelandic birds become known than a scramble by private collectors for specimens began, a bloody, unthinking destruction of one of the world’s most extraordinary birds. The last pair was killed in June 1844, with their single egg smashed in the process. But this wasn’t the end of the great auk story, as the bird went on to have a most extraordinary afterlife; skins, eggs and skeletons became the focus for dozens of collectors in a story of pathological craving and unscrupulous dealings that goes on to this day, almost two hundred years after the bird became extinct.Rich with insight and packed with tales of birds and of people, this book reveals the great auk’s life before humanity, its death on the killing shores of the North Atlantic, and the unrelenting subsequent quest for its remains. Tim Birkhead’s research has revealed previously unimagined aspects of the bird’s life and also, unexpectedly, its afterlife; in a curious twist, Birkhead found himself the recipient of the archive of the man who accumulated more great auk skins and eggs than anyone else. The great auk remains a symbol of human folly and the necessity of conservation. This book tells its story.
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