Great Auk Research Paper

Although there are many extinct animals, the Great Auk is an extraordinary animal. The Great Auk also had many variations in their egg’s, the streaks in their egg’s allowed the mating pair to recognize their egg at their breeding colony so they could determine the egg belonged to them. The Great Auk’s scientific name is also Pinguinus Impennis(“Great Auk”). The Great Auk’s habitat and geography. The Great Auk’s nesting colonies were settled upon rocky islands with sloping shorelines that allowed them to have advantages against any predators. The Great Auk, a large flightless bird, is native to the North Atlantic. It once had a population in the millions; however, for centuries the penguin-like birds were popular as meat and bait. One physical feature the Great Auk retained was endothermy, endothermy is the ability for animals to generate their own body heat. This is a necessary trait for the Great Auks because they lived in a frigid area. One of the predators to the Great Auk, was humans, or homo sapiens, humans would hunt Great Auk’s for goods and food(“Dewey, T.”).
The diet the Great Auk had consisted of cod, sand lance, sculpins, and atlantic menhaden. As a carnivore in its time it was easy to find food like fish and capelin as they would dive down to catch …show more content…
One of the Great Auk’s unique characteristics is, the Great Auk is not actually a penguin, it is actually a bird ;however, it is often referred to as the "penguin of the north". When the bird became extinct the remains of the species entranced a great value in Victorian Britain. The Great Auk is also known for being the mascot for many colleges and universities, such as Sir Sandford Fleming College in Ontario, Archmere Academy in Claymont, and Adelaide University Choral Society in Australia. The American Ornithologists Union has also named their scientific journal ‘The Auk’ to honor the magnificent bird, the Great Auk(“Great