Editing Great auk (section)

==Relationship with humans==
[[File:AukBones.jpg|upright|left|alt=A sketch of four bones of the great auk, all long. The first two on the left are shorter and hook and fatten at the end, while the third is straight. The fourth has a nub on both ends.|thumb|Illustration of two [[Humerus|humeri]] (1) and two [[tibia]]e (2), bones of the great auk uncovered by archaeologists in an ancient kitchen midden in [[Caithness]]]]

The great auk was a food source for [[Neanderthal]]s more than 100,000 years ago, as evidenced by well-cleaned bones found by their campfires. Images believed to depict the great auk also were carved into the walls of the El Pendo Cave in [[Camargo, Spain]], and [[Paglicci Cave|Paglicci]], Italy, more than 35,000 years ago,<ref name=Crofford_1989/>{{rp|pages=5–6}} and cave paintings 20,000 years old have been found in France's [[Grotte Cosquer]].<ref name=LozoyaGarcía2016/><ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=314}}

Native Americans valued the great auk as a food source during the winter and as an important cultural symbol. Images of the great auk have been found in bone necklaces.<ref name=Crofford_1989/>{{rp|page=36}} A person buried at the [[Maritime Archaic]] site at [[Port au Choix]], [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]], dating to about 2000 BC, was found surrounded by more than 200 great auk beaks, which are believed to have been part of a suit made from their skins, with the heads left attached as decoration.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tuck |first=James A. |author-link=James Tuck (archaeologist) | title = Ancient peoples of Port au Choix: The excavation of an Archaic Indian cemetery in Newfoundland | journal = Newfoundland Social and Economic Studies | volume = 17| publisher = Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial U of Newfoundland | location = St. John's | year = 1976| page=261}}</ref> Nearly half of the bird bones found in graves at this site were of the great auk, suggesting that it had great cultural significance for the Maritime Archaic people.<ref name="BNAConservation" /> The extinct [[Beothuk]]s of Newfoundland made pudding out of the eggs of the great auk.<ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=313}} The [[Dorset Eskimo]]s also hunted it. The [[Saqqaq culture|Saqqaq]] in Greenland overhunted the species, causing a local reduction in range.<ref name="BNAConservation" />

[[File:Wormius' Great Auk.jpg|thumb|upright|The only known illustration of a great auk drawn from life, [[Ole Worm]]'s pet, received from the Faroe Islands, 1655]]

Later, European sailors used the great auks as a navigational beacon, as the presence of these birds signalled that the [[Grand Banks of Newfoundland]] were near.<ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=314}}

This species is estimated to have had a maximum population in the millions.<ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=313}} The great auk was hunted on a significant scale for food, eggs, and its [[down feather]]s from at least the eighth century. Prior to that, hunting by local natives may be documented from Late Stone Age [[Scandinavia]] and eastern North America,<ref>{{cite book|last=Greenway|first=James C.|title=Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World|url=https://archive.org/details/extinctvanishing00gree|url-access=registration|edition=2nd|publisher=Dover Publications|location=New York|year=1967|pages=[https://archive.org/details/extinctvanishing00gree/page/271 271–291]|isbn=978-0-486-21869-4 }}</ref> as well as from early fifth century [[Labrador]], where the bird seems to have occurred only as stragglers.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jordan|first=Richard H|author2=Storrs L. Olson|year=1982|title=First record of the Great Auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') from Labrador|journal=[[The Auk]]|publisher=University of California Press|volume=99|issue=1|pages=167–168|url=http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v099n01/p0167-p0168.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140118050540/http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v099n01/p0167-p0168.pdf |archive-date=2014-01-18 |url-status=live |access-date=28 April 2010|doi=10.2307/4086034|jstor=4086034}}</ref> Early explorers, including [[Jacques Cartier]], and numerous ships attempting to find gold on [[Baffin Island]] were not provisioned with food for the journey home, and therefore, used great auks as both a convenient food source and bait for fishing. Reportedly, some of the later vessels anchored next to a colony and ran out planks to the land. The sailors then herded hundreds of great auks onto the ships, where they were slaughtered.<ref name=Crofford_1989/>{{rp|pages=38–39}} Some authors have questioned the reports of this hunting method and whether it was successful.<ref name="BNAConservation">{{Cite web | last = Montevecchi | first = William A. |author2=David A. Kirk | title =Conservation-Great Auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') | work = The Birds of North America Online | publisher = Cornell Lab of Ornithology | year = 1996 | url = http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/260/articles/conservation| access-date =29 April 2010 }} {{subscription required}}</ref> Great auk eggs were also a valued food source, as the eggs were three times the size of a [[murre]]'s and had a large yolk.<ref name="BNAConservation" /> These sailors also introduced rats onto the islands<ref name="Egg" /> which preyed upon nests.

===Extinction===
The [[Little Ice Age]] may have reduced the population of the great auk by exposing more of their breeding islands to predation by polar bears, but massive exploitation by humans for their down drastically reduced the population,<ref name="BNADemography" /> with recent evidence indicating the latter alone is likely the primary driver of its extinction.{{Efn|Taken together, our data do not provide any evidence that great auks were at risk of extinction prior to the onset of intensive human hunting in the early 16th century. In addition, our population viability analyses reveal that even if the great auk had not been under threat by environmental change, human hunting alone could have been sufficient to cause its extinction.{{Nowrap| — J. E. Thomas, et al. (2019)}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=Jessica E. |display-authors=etal |date=26 November 2019 |title=Demographic reconstruction from ancient DNA supports rapid extinction of the great auk |journal=[[eLife]] |doi=10.7554/eLife.47509 |doi-access=free |pmid=31767056 |pmc=6879203 |volume=8}}</ref>}} By the mid-sixteenth century, the nesting colonies along the European side of the Atlantic were nearly all eliminated by humans killing this bird for its down, which was used to make pillows.<ref name=Crofford_1989/>{{rp|page=40}} In 1553, the great auk received its first official protection. In 1794, Great Britain banned the killing of this species for its feathers.<ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=330}} In [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's]], those violating a 1775 law banning hunting the great auk for its feathers or eggs were publicly [[Flagellation|flogged]], though hunting for use as fishing bait was still permitted.<ref name="BNAConservation" /> On the North American side, [[eider]] down initially was preferred, but once the eiders were nearly driven to extinction in the 1770s, down collectors switched to the great auk at the same time that hunting for food, fishing bait, and oil decreased.<ref name="BNAConservation" /><ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=329}}

The great auk had disappeared from [[Funk Island]] by 1800. An account by Aaron Thomas of [[HMS Boston (1762)|HMS ''Boston'']] from 1794 described how the bird had been slaughtered systematically until then:

{{quote|If you come for their Feathers you do not give yourself the trouble of killing them, but lay hold of one and pluck the best of the Feathers. You then turn the poor Penguin adrift, with his skin half naked and torn off, to perish at his leasure. This is not a very humane method but it is the common practize. While you abide on this island you are in the constant practice of horrid cruelties for you not only skin them Alive, but you burn them Alive also to cook their Bodies with. You take a kettle with you into which you put a Penguin or two, you kindle a fire under it, and this fire is absolutely made of the unfortunate Penguins themselves. Their bodies being oily soon produce a Flame; there is no wood on the island.<ref name=Fuller2003/>}}

[[File:Eldey close.jpg|thumb|left|[[Eldey]], last refuge of the great auk]]

With its increasing rarity, specimens of the great auk and its eggs became collectible and highly prized by rich Europeans, and the loss of a large number of its eggs to collection contributed to the demise of the species. Eggers, individuals who visited the nesting sites of the great auk to collect their eggs, quickly realized that the birds did not all lay their eggs on the same day, so they could make return visits to the same breeding colony. Eggers only collected the eggs without embryos and typically, discarded the eggs with embryos growing inside them.<ref name=Crofford_1989/>{{rp|page=35}}

On the islet of [[Stac an Armin]], [[St. Kilda, Scotland]], in July 1840, the last great auk seen in Britain was caught and killed.<ref>{{cite book | last = Rackwitz | first = Martin| title = Travels to Terra Incognita: The Scottish Highlands and Hebrides in Early Modern Travellers' Accounts C. 1600 to 1800 | publisher = Waxmann Verlag | year = 2007 | page = 347| isbn = 978-3-8309-1699-4}}</ref> Three men from St. Kilda caught a single "garefowl", noticing its little wings and the large white spot on its head. They tied it up and kept it alive for three days, until a large storm arose. Believing that the bird was a witch and was causing the storm, they then killed it by beating it with a stick.<ref name=Fuller2003/><ref>{{cite book | last = Gaskell | first = Jeremy| title = Who Killed the Great Auk? | publisher = Oxford UP | year = 2000 | page = 142 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tsUzeXV_7jcC| isbn = 978-0-19-856478-2}}</ref>

[[File:Grote alk -KBIN-.jpg|upright|thumb|Specimen No. 3 in the [[Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences]], one of the two last birds killed on Eldey in 1844]]

The last colony of great auks lived on [[Geirfuglasker]] (the "Great Auk Rock") off Iceland. This islet was a volcanic rock surrounded by cliffs that made it inaccessible to humans, but in 1830, the islet submerged after a volcanic eruption, and the birds moved to the nearby island of [[Eldey]], which was accessible from a single side. When the colony was discovered in 1835, nearly fifty birds were present. Museums, desiring the skins of the great auk for preservation and display, quickly began collecting birds from the colony.<ref name=Crofford_1989/>{{rp|page=43}} The last pair, found incubating an egg, was killed there on 3 June 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens.<ref name="newton">{{cite journal|last=Newton|first=Alfred|year=1861|title=Abstract of Mr. J. Wolley's Researches in Iceland respecting the Gare-fowl or Great Auk (Alea impennis, Linn.)|journal=Ibis|volume=3|issue=4|pages=374–399|doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1861.tb08857.x|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1447659}}</ref>{{efn|A date of 3 July 1844 is given by various online sources,<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/jul3/great-auks-become-extinct/|title=Jul 3, 1844 CE: Great Auks Become Extinct|magazine=National Geographic}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://johnjames.audubon.org/extinction-great-auk|title=The extinction of The Great Auk|date=22 December 2015|publisher=National Audubon Society}}</ref> but does not accord with the original publication and print sources.}}

Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson, the men who had killed the last birds, were interviewed by great auk specialist [[John Wolley]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Abstract of Mr. J. Wolley's Researches in Iceland respecting the Gare-fowl or Great Auk (Alea impennis, Linn.)|author=Newton, Alfred| year=1861|doi=10.1111/j.1474-919X.1861.tb08857.x| journal=Ibis| volume=3| issue=4| pages=374–399|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1447659}}</ref> and Sigurður described the act as follows:

{{Blockquote|The rocks were covered with blackbirds <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[guillemot]]s] and there were the Geirfugles&nbsp;... They walked slowly. Jón Brandsson crept up with his arms open. The bird that Jón got went into a corner but [mine] was going to the edge of the cliff. It walked like a man ... but moved its feet quickly. [I] caught it close to the edge&nbsp;– a precipice many fathoms deep. Its wings lay close to the sides – not hanging out. I took him by the neck and he flapped his wings. He made no cry. I strangled him.<ref name=Fuller_1999/>{{rp|pages=82–83}} }}

A later claim of a live individual sighted in 1852 on the [[Grand Banks of Newfoundland]] has been accepted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.<ref name="iucn status 19 November 2021" /> 

Alleged sightings of the auk continued for decades after it was believed extinct. The last alleged sighting occurred in the Lofotens in 1927. Errol Fuller noted that several of the later sightings were hoaxes or misidentifications of penguins that had been released near Norway.<ref name=Fuller_1999/>{{rp|pages=404–413}}

There is an ongoing discussion about the possibilities for [[De-extinction|reviving]] the great auk using its DNA from specimens collected. This possibility is controversial.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-efforts-bring-extinct-species-back-from-dead-miss-point/|title=Why Efforts to Bring Extinct Species Back from the Dead Miss the Point |journal=[[Scientific American]] |date=1 June 2013 |volume=308 |issue=6 |page=12 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0613-12 |pmid=23729057 |quote= originally published with the title “Do Not Reanimate” in ''Scientific American Magazine'' Vol. 308 No. 6 (June 2013), p. 12}}</ref>

===Preserved specimens===
[[File:Alca impennis 3.jpg|left|thumb|Specimen No. 39, skeleton, and replica egg at [[Senckenberg Museum]]]]

Today, 78 skins of the great auk remain, mostly in museum collections, along with approximately 75 eggs and 24 complete skeletons. All but four of the surviving skins are in summer plumage, and only two of these are immature. No hatchling specimens exist. Each egg and skin has been assigned a number by specialists.<ref name=Fuller2003/> Although thousands of isolated bones were collected from nineteenth century [[Funk Island]] to [[Neolithic]] [[midden]]s, only a few complete skeletons exist.<ref>{{cite book |last=Luther |first=Dieter |title=Die ausgestorbenen Vögel der Welt |edition=4th |series=Die neue Brehm-Bücherei |volume=424 |publisher=Westarp-Wissenschaften |place=Heidelberg, DE |year=1996 |pages=78–84 |isbn=3-89432-213-6 |language=de}}</ref> Natural mummies also are known from Funk Island, and the eyes and internal organs of the last two birds from 1844 are stored in the [[Zoological Museum, Copenhagen]]. The whereabouts of the skins from the last two individuals has been unknown for more than a hundred years, but that mystery has been partly resolved using DNA extracted from the organs of the last individuals and the skins of the candidate specimens suggested by [[Errol Fuller]]<ref name=Fuller2003/> (those in [[Übersee-Museum Bremen]], [[Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences]], [[Zoological Museum of Kiel University]], [[Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History]], and [[Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch Oldenburg]]). A positive match was found between the organs from the male individual and the skin now in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. No match was found between the female organs and a specimen from Fuller's list, but authors speculate that the skin in [[Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal|Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Science]] may be a potential candidate due to a common history with the Los Angeles specimen.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=Jessica E. |last2=Carvalho |first2=Gary R. |last3=Haile |first3=James |last4=Martin |first4=Michael D. |last5=Castruita |first5=Jose A. Samaniego |last6=Niemann |first6=Jonas |last7=Sinding |first7=Mikkel-Holger S. |last8=Sandoval-Velasco |first8=Marcela |last9=Rawlence |first9=Nicolas J. |date=2017-06-15 |title=An 'Aukward' Tale: A Genetic Approach to Discover the Whereabouts of the Last Great Auks |journal=Genes |language=en |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=164 |doi=10.3390/genes8060164 |pmc=5485528 |pmid=28617333 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[File:Great auk in winter plumage and organs of last two birds.jpg|upright|thumb|Great auk in winter plumage (No. 24, one of four in existence) and the internal organs of the last two great auks, [[Natural History Museum of Denmark]]]]
Following the bird's extinction, remains of the great auk increased dramatically in value, and auctions of specimens created intense interest in [[Victorian era|Victorian]] Britain, where 15 specimens are now located, the largest number of any country.<ref name=Fuller2003/> A specimen was bought in 1971 by the Icelandic Museum of National History for £9000, which placed it in the [[Guinness Book of Records]] as the most expensive stuffed bird ever sold.<ref>Guinness Book of Records 1972.</ref> The price of its eggs sometimes reached up to 11 times the amount earned by a skilled worker in a year.<ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=331}} The present whereabouts of six of the eggs are unknown. Several other eggs have been destroyed accidentally. Two mounted skins were destroyed in the twentieth century, one in the [[Mainz]] Museum during the [[Second World War]], and one in the Museu Bocage, [[Lisbon]] that was destroyed by a fire in 1978.<ref name=Fuller2003/>

===Cultural depictions===
====Children's books====
[[Charles Kingsley]]'s ''[[The Water-Babies|The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby]]'' (1863) features the last great auk (referred to in the book as a ''gairfowl'') telling the tale of the demise of her species.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kingsley |first=Charles |url=https://archive.org/details/waterbabiesfairy00king_9/page/251/mode/1up?q=herrings&view=theater |title=The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby |date=1863 |publisher=London & Cambridge: Macmillan and Co. |pages=251, 257–265}}</ref> Different illustrations of the auk are included in the original 1863 version, the 1889 version illustrated by [[Edward Linley Sambourne|Linley Sambourne]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Water-Babies, by Charles Kingsley |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1018/1018-h/1018-h.htm |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref>{{page needed|date=January 2025}} 1916 by [[Frank A. Nankivell]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=The water-babies |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/16021937/ |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 US}}</ref>{{page needed|date=January 2025}} and 1916 by [[Jessie Willcox Smith]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Jessie Willcox |date=1916 |title=And there he saw the last of the gairfowl |url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010718120/ |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=www.loc.gov |language=en}}</ref> Kinglsey's auk implicates the "nasty fellows" who "shot us so, and knocked us on the head, and took our eggs." While Kingsley portrays the extinction as sad, he provides his opinion that "there are better things come in her place," namely human colonization of the islands for the [[cod]] fishing industry, which would serve to feed the poor. He concludes the discussion with a quote from [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]]: "The old order changeth, giving place to the new; And God fulfils Himself in many ways."{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

[[Enid Blyton]]'s ''[[The Island of Adventure]]'' (1944) sends one of the protagonists on a failed search for what he believes is a lost colony of the species.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blyton |first=Enid |title=The Island of Adventure |publisher=Macmillan |year=1944 |location=London}}</ref>{{page needed|date=January 2025}}

====Literature and journalism====
The great auk is also present in a wide variety of other works of fiction.

In the short story ''The Harbor-Master'' by [[Robert W. Chambers]], the discovery and attempted recovery of the last known pair of great auks is central to the plot (which also involves a proto-[[Lovecraftian horror|Lovecraftian]] element of suspense). The story first appeared in ''Ainslee's Magazine'' (August 1898)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.319510007402581|hdl = 2027/umn.319510007402581|title = Ainslee's magazine. V.3 (1899)| pages=10 v }}</ref> and was slightly revised to become the first five chapters of Chambers' episodic novel ''In Search of the Unknown'', (Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York, 1904).

''[[Penguin Island (novel)|Penguin Island]]'', a 1908 French satirical novel by the [[Nobel Prize]] winning author [[Anatole France]], narrates the fictional history of a great auk population that is mistakenly baptized by a [[Myopia|nearsighted]] [[missionary]].<ref>{{cite book |last=France |first=Anatole |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1930/1930-h/1930-h.htm |title=Penguin Island |publisher=Project Gutenberg |access-date=28 April 2010}}</ref>{{page needed|date=January 2025}}

In his novel ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' (1922), [[James Joyce]] mentions the bird while the novel's main character is drifting into sleep. He associates the great auk with the mythical [[Roc (mythology)|roc]] as a method of formally returning the main character to a sleepy land of fantasy and memory.<ref>{{cite book|last=Joyce|first=James|title=Ulysses|publisher=BiblioLife |location=Charleston, SC|year=2007|page=682|isbn=978-1-4346-0387-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dq2CgT4tIlsC&q=Ulysses}}</ref>

[[W. S. Merwin]] mentions the great auk in a short litany of extinct animals in his poem "For a Coming Extinction", one of the poems from his 1967 collection, "The Lice".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Merwin |title=For a Coming Extinction |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57936/for-a-coming-extinction-56d23be1c33a8 |access-date=27 March 2019 |website=Poetry Foundation|date=15 March 2019 }}</ref>

''[[Night of the Auk]]'', a 1956 Broadway drama by Arch Oboler, depicts a group of astronauts returning from the Moon to discover that a full-blown nuclear war has broken out.  Obeler draws a parallel between the anthropogenic extinction of the great auk and of the story's nuclear extinction of humankind.<ref>{{cite book |last=Oboler |first=Arch |author-link=Arch Oboler |title=Night of the Auk |publisher=Horizon Press |year=1958 |location=New York |lccn=58-13553}}</ref>

A great auk is collected by fictional naturalist [[Stephen Maturin]] in the [[Patrick O'Brian]] historical novel ''[[The Surgeon's Mate]]'' (1980). This work also details the harvesting of a colony of auks.<ref>{{cite book|last=O'Brian|first=Patrick|title=The Surgeon's Mate|publisher=W.W. Norton and Company|location=New York|year=1981|pages=84–85|isbn=0-393-30820-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idKmOKXDoUIC&q=The+Surgeon's+Mate+Great+Auk&pg=PA84}}</ref>

[[Farley Mowat]] devotes the first section, "Spearbill", of his book ''Sea of Slaughter'' (1984) to the history of the great auk.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mowat |first=Farley |title=Sea of Slaughter |publisher=Bantam Books |year=1986 |isbn=0-553-34269-X |location=New York |page=18}}</ref>

[[Elizabeth Kolbert]]'s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, ''[[The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History]]'' (2014), includes a chapter on the great auk.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-02-10 |title=Excerpt: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History {{!}} Audubon |url=https://www.audubon.org/news/excerpt-sixth-extinction-unnatural-history |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=www.audubon.org |language=en}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Geirfugl (great auk) monument.jpg|Monument on [[Reykjanes Peninsula]], [[Iceland]]
File:Awk Walk (42820792915).jpg|Monument on [[Fogo Island (Newfoundland and Labrador)|Fogo Island]], [[Canada]]
File:Great Auk monument.jpg|Monument to the last British great auk at Fowl Craig, [[Orkney]]
</gallery>

====Performing arts====
The great auk is the subject of a ballet, ''[[Still Life at the Penguin Cafe|Still Life at the Penguin Café]]'' (1988),<ref>{{cite book|last=Jeffes|first=Simon |author-link=Simon Jeffes |title='Still Life' at the Penguin Cafe|publisher=Peters Edition Ltd.|location=London|year=2002|isbn=0-9542720-0-5}}</ref> and a song, "A Dream Too Far", in the ecological musical ''[[Rockford's Rock Opera]]'' (2010).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rockfordsrockopera.com/characters/other-characters-info.asp?id2=2|title=Durka-The Great Auk|year=2010|publisher=Rockford's Rock Opera|access-date=10 May 2010}}</ref>

====Mascots====
The great auk is the [[mascot]] of the [[Archmere Academy]] in [[Claymont, Delaware]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archmereacademy.com/page/news-detail?pk=677401|title=Archmere AUK Named Most Unique HS Mascot in DE, Moves on to Regionals!|date=6 March 2013|publisher=Archmere Academy |access-date=21 May 2017}}</ref> and the [[University of Adelaide|Adelaide University]] Choral Society (AUCS) in Australia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aucs.org.au/web/system/files/2005.02skweek.pdf|title=O'Sqweek 2005|last=Holzknecht|first=Karin|year=2005|publisher=Adelaide University Choral Society|page=1|access-date=28 April 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080719054354/http://www.aucs.org.au/web/system/files/2005.02skweek.pdf| archive-date = 19 July 2008}}</ref>

The great auk was formerly the mascot of the Lindsay Frost campus of [[Fleming College|Sir Sandford Fleming College]] in [[Ontario]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.flemingsa.com/index.php|title=Fleming College Auk's Lodge Student Association|date=15 April 2010|publisher=Fleming College Auk's Lodge Student Association|access-date=28 April 2010|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711005727/http://www.flemingsa.com/index.php|archive-date=11 July 2011}}</ref> In 2012, the two separate sports programs of Fleming College were combined<ref>[http://web.studentportfolios.ca/~humberjournalism.com/sweat/2012/04/11/flemings-auks-and-knights-athletics-merger/ Fleming's Auks and Knights athletics merger] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027060958/http://web.studentportfolios.ca/~humberjournalism.com/sweat/2012/04/11/flemings-auks-and-knights-athletics-merger/ |date=27 October 2016 }} 11 April 2012. Evolution in Sport.</ref> and the great auk mascot went extinct. The Lindsay Frost campus student owned bar, student centre, and lounge is still known as the Auk's Lodge.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Auk's Lodge Student Centre|url=https://www.frostsa.ca/auks-lodge|access-date=2023-02-06|website=Frost Student Association
| publisher= Fleming College 
|language=en-US}}</ref>

It was also the mascot of the now ended [[Knowledge Masters]] educational competition.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greatauk.com/KMO.html|title=Knowledge Master Open academic competition|publisher=greatauk.com|access-date=3 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130918014017/http://greatauk.com/KMO.html|archive-date=18 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.the-index.org/cgi-bin/story.php?story=1014quizbowlkmo |title=Competition summons inner intellect |last=Schettle |first=Liz |date=17 December 2004 |publisher=The Oshkosh West Index |access-date=29 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110602061258/http://www.the-index.org/cgi-bin/story.php?story=1014quizbowlkmo |archive-date=2 June 2011 }}</ref>

====Names====
The scientific journal of the [[American Ornithologists' Union]], ''[[Ornithology (journal)|Ornithology ]]'', was named ''[[The Auk]]'' until 2021 in honour of this bird.<ref name=Cokinos2000/>

According to [[Homer Hickam]]'s memoir, ''[[Rocket Boys]]'', and its film production, ''[[October Sky]]'', the early rockets he and his friends built, were named "Auk".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.homerhickam.com/books/rb.shtml |title=Books – Rocket Boys / October Sky |last=Hickam |first=Homer |year=2006 |publisher=Homer Hickam Online |access-date=29 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505161107/http://www.homerhickam.com/books/rb.shtml |archive-date=5 May 2010}}</ref>

A cigarette company, the British Great Auk Cigarettes, was named after this bird.<ref name=Cokinos2000/>

====Fine arts====
[[Walton Ford]], the American painter, has featured great auks in two paintings: ''The Witch of St. Kilda'' and ''Funk Island''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ford |first=Walton |title=Pancha Tantra |publisher=Taschen America LLC |location=Los Angeles |year=2009 |edition=illustrated |isbn=978-3-8228-5237-8}}</ref> Replica skins and eggs were made and sold in the 1920s for collectors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Birkhead |first1=Tim R. |last2=Clugston |first2=David L. |last3=Holliday |first3=Steve T. |last4=Montgomerie |first4=Robert D. |date=2024 |title=Wooden replicas of great auk eggs created ( c. 1922) by Stephen James Goodall (1825–1896) |url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/anh.2024.0937 |journal=Archives of Natural History |language=en |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=417–421 |doi=10.3366/anh.2024.0937 |issn=0260-9541}}</ref>

The English painter and writer [[Errol Fuller]] produced ''Last Stand'' for his monograph on the species.<ref name=Fuller2003/>

The great auk also appeared on one stamp in a set of five depicting extinct birds issued by Cuba in 1974.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pibburns.com/cryptost/dodo.htm |title=Dodo Stamps |last=Burns |first=Phillip |date=6 July 2003 |website=Pib's Home on the Web |access-date=28 April 2010}}</ref>