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“When I was in Labrador, many of the fishermen assured me that the “Penguin,” as they name this bird, breeds on a low rocky island to the south-east of Newfoundland, where they destroy great numbers of the young for bait, but as this intelligence came to me when the season was too far advanced, I had no opportunity of ascertaining its accuracy.
“In Newfoundland, however, I received similar information from several individuals. An old gunner residing on Chelsea Beach, near Boston, told me that he well remembered the time when the Penguins were plentiful about Nahant and some other islands in the bay.”
Audubon included the Great Auk in his famous book Birds of America, but he never saw one alive. He had to base his painting on a stuffed Great Auk specimen that he bought in London in 1836.
He painted the birds as if they were alive, but he left the background, as he often did, to Robert Havell Jr., his engraver. Havell painted the steep cliffs and gale force waves, even though he had not been on the expedition to Newfoundland or Labrador.
By the time Audubon painted the illustrations for his book, Birds of America, the bird had already dwindled in significant numbers. The Little Ice Age, which lasted from 1500 to 1800, had left far more land than water in the cold north. The flightless birds were powerful swimmers, but clumsy on the land, making them easy prey for polar bears and other land-based predators.
The Great Auk was an important part of many Native American cultures, both as a food source and as a symbolic item. But for most of their existence, the Great Auk flourished far away from human beings and never learned to be wary of them.
For the early European settlers, explorers and sailors attempting to find food, these large and flightless birds were easy prey. Not only in the ocean, but especially when the birds left the waters to breed. The Great Auk and their eggs were a convenient food source and the chicks were used as bait for catching cod.
This soon led to a dramatic reduction in their numbers.
Attempts to protect the Great Auk started in 1553 and by 1794 laws to protect the species were very strict. However, these proved ineffectual and even resulted in more hunting of the bird.
Its growing rarity increased interest from European museums and private collectors who wanted to obtain skins and eggs of these birds. Rich Europeans would pay $16,for one specimen of an adult bird or an egg, the equivalent then of a year’s wage for a skilled worker.
On June 3, 1844, less than a decade after Audubon painted the bird for his book, the last breeding pair of Great Auks were killed on Eldey, off the coast of Iceland
“The scene as a whole has a fantastical quality, removed from any reality we might want to associate with it: the waves arrested in timelessness as in Japanese prints, the rocks bathed in a light that seems to come from nowhere in particular, a perfect stage for birds that exist no longer in nature, but only in the naturalist’s mind and on the pages of his big book.”
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Over 3,000 historic giclee prints, 16 artists and 40 complete sets
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