The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction by Gísli Pálsson
Introduction to the Book and Author
It traces the fate of the great auk, a flightless seabird once abundant across the North Atlantic, whose last known pair was killed in Iceland in 1844. The efforts of Victorian ornithologists to document the species’ disappearance led to a revolutionary realization: that humans could drive species to extinction.
Pálsson (b. 1949), professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Iceland, has built a distinguished academic career exploring environmental anthropology, fisheries, polar cultures, and extinction studies.
His previous books include The Human Age: How We Created the Anthropocene and Triggered the Climate Crisis (2020) and The Man Who Stole Himself (2016).
Known for combining meticulous historical research with deep anthropological insight, Pálsson draws on his mastery of Icelandic language and culture to uncover rare primary sources and fresh perspectives.
The book has been widely acclaimed, making the shortlist for the prestigious Royal Society Science Book Prize and being named one of The Guardian’s best science and nature books of 2024.
Chapter One: The Great Auk – Creature of the Frozen Ocean
Pálsson begins by introducing the great auk (Pinguinus impennis), a large, flightless bird of the North Atlantic. Standing 75–85 cm tall and weighing up to 5 kg, it resembled a northern counterpart to the penguin, with striking black-and-white plumage and a massive striped beak.
The auk was a superb swimmer but clumsy on land, making it vulnerable when nesting on remote rocky islands. Once unimaginably numerous, they gathered in vast colonies—records from Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s 1583 Newfoundland voyage describe their numbers as “inexhaustible.
” Their presence is evident in European cave art, as well as burial sites in Newfoundland, where more than 200 auk beaks suggest ritual or clothing use.
The bird’s life cycle was remarkable: it laid a single large egg per season, with chicks leaving the nest after just three weeks.
Parents carried young on their backs while swimming, an image never witnessed by modern science but reconstructed through accounts. Astonishingly, a few were even tamed—Danish naturalist Ole Worm kept one as a pet on a leash, and another lived at Louis XIV’s Versailles.
This raises a haunting thought: had captive breeding been attempted, the species might have survived, much as the European bison and Przewalski’s horse later did.
Hunting and Decline – The Road to Oblivion
The great auk’s downfall came swiftly. Hunted relentlessly for its meat, eggs, feathers, and oil, the bird became both a staple for sailors and a commodity. Feathers stuffed pillows, eggs fed explorers, and oil lit lamps. But its reproductive habits sealed its fate: exposed nests on hard-to-reach islands made it easy prey once hunters persevered.
For a time, folklore offered protection. Auk colonies thrived on Geirfuglasker, or “Great Auk Rock,” believed by Icelanders to be haunted.
Legends told of spirits saving children and exacting revenge, keeping fishermen at bay for centuries. Such cultural taboos, Pálsson notes, often acted as accidental conservation tools—paralleling traditions in places like Papua New Guinea, where spiritual beliefs safeguard local species.
That protection ended abruptly in 1830, when volcanic activity submerged Geirfuglasker. The birds relocated to Eldey, a smaller, more accessible island without supernatural associations.
By 1833, hunters took 24 birds in one trip. In June 1844, a crew led by Vilhjálmur Hákonarson killed the last known pair, crushing their single egg. Unknowingly, they had extinguished a species.
Key timeline of extinction:
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~1830: Geirfuglasker destroyed by volcanic eruption
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1833: 24 birds taken from Eldey
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1844: Last known pair killed, egg destroyed
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1858: British ornithologists arrive in Iceland searching for survivors
The Victorian Expedition – Wolley, Newton, and the Anthropology of Extinction
Much of the book centers on John Wolley and Alfred Newton, British ornithologists who traveled to Iceland in 1858.
Unable to land on Eldey due to treacherous currents, they shifted strategy: from searching for living birds to collecting testimonies. Interviewing Icelandic fishermen, they recorded detailed accounts in notebooks later called The Gare-Fowl Books (using an old English name for the auk).
Preserved today in Cambridge University Library, these notebooks remain under strict archival protection.
Here Pálsson’s anthropological expertise shines. He highlights how Icelanders often spoke of the bird in the present tense—“It runs to the left, as auks do”—revealing a worldview where vanished species were not thought extinct, but simply “gone elsewhere.” This resonates with Indigenous perspectives worldwide.
The Birth of a Concept – Newtonian Extinction
The expedition transformed scientific thought. In the early 1800s, extinction as a concept was widely rejected. Rooted in religious creationism, most believed species could not vanish; if unseen, they must persist somewhere remote.
The word “extinction” itself was more commonly applied to aristocratic family lines than to animals.
But Wolley and Newton’s evidence—direct testimony of men who had killed the last birds—proved otherwise. Extinction could be human-driven. After Wolley’s sudden death in 1859, Newton refined the idea, distinguishing:
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Natural extinction: gradual, from evolutionary or environmental pressures
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Human-caused extinction: rapid, through overhunting and exploitation
Though Newton used terms like “extermination” or “extirpation” rather than “unnatural extinction,” his insight was groundbreaking.
Pálsson calls it “Newtonian extinction”—a conceptual leap that laid the foundations of modern conservation. Newton himself became a leading advocate, pushing through Britain’s 1869 Sea Birds Protection Act.
Critical Reflections – Strengths and Limits of the Book
Pálsson connects the auk’s story to today’s biodiversity crisis. The bird’s demise, he argues, foreshadowed the human-driven mass extinction we now face in the Anthropocene.
At the same time, he acknowledges critiques. Historian Jon Rømer, for instance, cautions against anachronism when Pálsson frames Newton’s work as a precursor to Anthropocene thinking.
Others note that Newton’s interest in the extinction of the great bustard in Britain may have been equally formative.
Still, the book’s power lies in Pálsson’s unique sources and perspective. By treating fishermen’s testimonies as cultural texts as well as historical evidence, he uncovers layers of meaning that pure natural history might overlook.
Legacy of the Great Auk
The book closes with sober reflection. The great auk’s fate is not a relic of the past but a parable for the present. It illustrates:
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The destructive force of human greed: the bird was not exterminated out of necessity, but for luxury, curiosity, and profit.
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The role of culture in conservation: folklore once shielded its colonies, showing how traditional beliefs can inadvertently safeguard ecosystems.
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Science as responsibility: Wolley and Newton’s shift from denial to recognition reminds us that knowledge should serve protection, not exploitation.
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Hope through awareness: if extinction can be human-caused, it can also be averted through collective action.
The great auk’s story is tragic, yet awakening. As Pálsson suggests, if we heed the lessons inscribed in the Gare-Fowl Books—paid for by the bird’s own life—we may yet prevent countless other species from following it into silence.
This book is not just an elegy for a vanished bird, but a pressing call to reflection and action in the age of the Sixth Mass Extinction.
For the original summary in Arabic
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