Editing Great auk (section)

===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>