The penguin in the North
- Elding's research team
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
The lost Northern "penguin" and it‘s little cousin.
With the coming of the summer, whenever the snow starts to melt and the mountains molt from white and brown to green, we remember the migratory and endemic birds of the Icelandic shores. Almost two centuries ago, the North Atlantic was inhabitated by a large flightless bird, it‘s scientific name was Pinguinus impennis, it looked like a penguin! The great auk became extinct on the 3rd of July of 1844, they were related to the Alcidae family where we find it‘s closest little cousin the razorbill, and other small seabirds such as the famous Atlantic puffin or the common guillemot.
What happened to them?
Its last confirmed pair was caught and killed by fishermen on Eldey, an island on the Southwest of Iceland. The last living bird was seen in 1852 after the rest of its kind was whiped out for feathers, meat, fat and oil. Althought there were signs that these birds were disappearing, whalers and fishermen countinued its demised. Their largest colony was in Newfoundland, collapsed despite a petition in 1775 to stop the massacre. While this was happening, their numbers plumeted considerably and they were gone by the mid 19th century. The penguin in the north was extinct because of greed, negligence and ignorance. The first settlers, had little to no food available on their journeys across the frigid waters of the Atlantic North. So they had to forage on anything they could put their hands on, making the great auk an easy catch. With the human population increasing, they became more sought after because they were easy to catch and had plenty of uses.
With humans, also came other factors, such as deseases and predators like cats and rats. As they started to decrease in numbers, there was a race to catch the last specimens to be sold to museums and collectors. It all came down to the last breeding couple on Eldey, Iceland. They got caught by fishermen, either hungry or bounty hunting, and their last egg was crushed or discarted, either way, it would never survive even if left intact.
Why not penguin if penguin shaped?
The great auk was first described long before the"modern penguins“ were discovered, so one could say that it is the original penguin, like its scientific name suggests. One clue is that this bird couldn‘t fly, spent most of it‘s time diving feeding on fish and waddled awkwardly on land. The other clue was it‘s shape, with it‘s 75cm height you could compare it to a gentoo penguin, it had small tucked in wings that were used to paddle on the water column and it‘s colour which was black and white, a penguin lookalike classic.
With all of these similarities, it‘s easy to put them in the same category, but the evolutionary lineage tells us that they are not related at all! The existing auks are only found in the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans, they can fly and are much smaller. Sometimes distantly related organisms that live in similar habitats, can have similar traits as a form of adaptation! It's convergent evolution. A very common similar trait found in a great number of marine creatures is the countershading: darker upper body and white belly, used to camouflage themselves from the predators above and bellow! Another one being the small tail that helps them stand on land and the small tucked in wings, more adapted for swimming than to flying, somehow they manage.
The coolest looking seabird ever?
The closest relative to the great auk, the razorbill, has one of the coolest looking faces in the animal kingdom. These seabirds seem to be taken out of a sci-fi movie, with their alien like faces. When viewed from the front, we can see two white lines placed on top of their bill and between their eyes. The only differences between the great auk and the razorbill are their size and their face, where on a great auk you have a white patch between the eyes and bill. The rest of the body of the razorbill is pretty much the same, but smaller! Of course, another big difference is that they can fly! Their body is a auk classic, black on the back, from the head to the little tail feathers and a white belly. I like to say they have a bill of an eagle with a body of a puffin! So the answer is yes, and it‘s not even close!
Where do they mingle?
Like their big cousins, the rocky cliffs from the North and West of Europe to Iceland, Greenland and the Eastern shore on North America were their favourite. The largest colony is in Látrabjarg, on the Western tip of the Westfjords in Iceland. These sea stacks are shared with guillemots, fulmars and kittiwakes, so it‘s a busy place! The single egg is layed on a ledge along the cliff. After hatching, both parents take care of the chick, and 20 days later the chick leaves the nest even without having formed flight feathers, with a leap of faith into the ocean! After landing on the cold water, the chick becomes the father‘s responsability! Dad then takes care of it‘s only chick until it forages for itself.
The french penguin?
Well, language barriers have always tricked us, and in this case in french, razorbill is called „Petit Pingouin“ (small penguin). This is due to the fact that these birds were in fact first described by french naturalists, hence the name! Only later in time the „modern penguin“ was discovered and described by english explorers and naturalists as a penguin, and the name stuck. So you if you want to correct the french when they say this, think again!
Wise star gazers.
The courtship of these birds is quite unique. Like all over the bird world, the male has to conquer the female‘s trust. To do this, they hold their bills vertically, as they were contemplanting the heavens! While also opening their bills to reveal a brilliant yellow interior. This behaviour got them a nickname from Newfoundland called "tinkers“ or "thinkers“!
And so, with these two birds, one lost forever and another one threatened but recovering in numbers are another two examples of the complexity of seabird species found in Iceland and in the North Atlantic. Stay tuned for more coming!
Pedro Teixeira
Comments