BEHOLD THE GREAT AUK The Gejrfugl The northern penguin Less than four centuries ago hundreds of thousands of these magnificent birds lived in the frigid seas between Europe and North America Now there are none So what happened It's a complicated story Although humans as you may suspect did indeed have a heavy hand in the Great Auk s extinction there were other factors that contributed to its demise not the least of which was the bird's own E E TAY anatomy and behavior
e a In the cold North Atlantic the Great Auk was the biggest bird around It weighed as much as a sack of potatoes and stood as tall as a three year old It had a formidable beak and strong webbed feet A brilliant swimmer it flew through the water as swiftly as the fish it hunted It could hold its breath for minutes and could dive so deep it would disappear from sight And it was long lived its lifespan was twenty years or
Sounds impressive doesn't it But wait There was a slight glitch in this expert fish hunter s design Over millions of years of evolution its wings though eventually perfect for propelling it underwater became so stunted so small they couldn t get the bird off the ground The Great Auk couldn t fly to save its life
