1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,240 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:09,799 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:14,120 Speaker 1: show that explores the highs and lows of everyday history. 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:19,320 Speaker 1: I'm Gabelusier, and in this episode, we're paying our respects 5 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:22,960 Speaker 1: to the late Great Awk, an extinct bird that no 6 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:33,360 Speaker 1: one listening ever got the chance to encounter. As a warning, 7 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:38,040 Speaker 1: today's episode includes descriptions of human cruelty toward animals and 8 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: may be upsetting for some listeners. The day was July third, 9 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:49,720 Speaker 1: eighteen forty four. Icelandic fishermen killed the last remaining pair 10 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:55,080 Speaker 1: of great Auk seabirds. For thousands of years, the waters 11 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: of the North Atlantic were home to large, flightless birds 12 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 1: known as great awe. Much like penguins to whom they 13 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 1: were mistakenly thought to be related, great oks had black 14 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:09,440 Speaker 1: and white plumage and spent much of their time diving 15 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: into the water to feed on fish. Standing just under 16 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:17,240 Speaker 1: three feet tall with small, stubby wings incapable of flight, 17 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:21,280 Speaker 1: the great ok was clumsy and slow on land, but 18 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:25,959 Speaker 1: incredibly agile in the water. The birds lived in large 19 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:29,760 Speaker 1: colonies scattered across the remote, rocky islands of the Atlantic 20 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:33,280 Speaker 1: Ocean and every summer, millions of the birds would gather 21 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:37,120 Speaker 1: there to breed and lay their eggs. Little else is 22 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:41,199 Speaker 1: known about the great ox behavior, as naturalists never got 23 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 1: the opportunity to study them in the wild. What we 24 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:48,120 Speaker 1: do know about the species comes mostly from the accounts 25 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 1: of sailors, fishermen, and whalers who frequented the bird's breeding 26 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 1: grounds and ultimately drove them to extinction. Beginning around the 27 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:01,960 Speaker 1: fifteenth century, sailors traveling near the American and European coast 28 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 1: routinely caught and killed huge numbers of great ox during 29 00:02:06,520 --> 00:02:11,280 Speaker 1: breeding season. The awkward birds and their freshly laid eggs 30 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:15,040 Speaker 1: were such easy prey for humans that the sailors called 31 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: the practice harvesting rather than hunting. In fifteen thirty four, 32 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:24,760 Speaker 1: French explorer Jacques Cartier recounted the ease with which he 33 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,120 Speaker 1: and his crew had collected great ox off the coast 34 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:32,160 Speaker 1: of Newfoundland in less than half an hour. He wrote, 35 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:35,280 Speaker 1: we filled two boats full of them, as if they 36 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:38,640 Speaker 1: had been stones, so that besides the ones which we 37 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:42,800 Speaker 1: did not eat fresh, every ship did powder and salt 38 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: five or six barrels full of them. The birds meat 39 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:53,799 Speaker 1: and eggs became staple foods for sailors from Canada, Greenland, Denmark, 40 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:58,360 Speaker 1: the Faroe Islands, Iceland and all over the UK. But 41 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:02,160 Speaker 1: the exploitation of great ox didn't stop at the dinner table. 42 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:07,440 Speaker 1: Their soft feathers were plucked out and sold to pillow makers, 43 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 1: and their oil rich bodies were burned as fuel for 44 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:15,160 Speaker 1: lamps and cooking fires, often while the birds were still alive. 45 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:20,760 Speaker 1: These barbaric practices decimated the largest colony of great ox 46 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: in Newfoundland, and by the seventeen seventies the entire species 47 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:30,120 Speaker 1: was at risk. The population decline didn't go unnoticed, and 48 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 1: some efforts were made to save the great ok from extinction. 49 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy five, for instance, the Nova Scotian government 50 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:41,600 Speaker 1: petitioned the British Parliament to ban the killing of great ox. 51 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,600 Speaker 1: The request was granted, and according to the law, anyone 52 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:48,640 Speaker 1: caught killing the birds for their feathers or stealing their 53 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: eggs was to be flogged in public. However, sailors were 54 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: still permitted to kill the ox so long as they 55 00:03:56,760 --> 00:04:00,920 Speaker 1: used the meat as fish bait. In practice, this loophole 56 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:05,760 Speaker 1: enabled sailors to continue harvesting the birds as usual, especially 57 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:10,840 Speaker 1: since the band was never fully enforced by authorities. In 58 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:14,640 Speaker 1: the early eighteen hundreds, the growing scarcity of great ax 59 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:20,040 Speaker 1: made them a more valuable commodity than ever. Museums, collectors, 60 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 1: and other members of the scientific community knew that the 61 00:04:23,279 --> 00:04:26,680 Speaker 1: animals weren't long for this world, but rather than pushing 62 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:30,280 Speaker 1: harder for the bird's protection, they became the leading drivers 63 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: of the bird's march to extinction. Collectors and curators paid 64 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,279 Speaker 1: huge sums for a single egg or skin, desperate to 65 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:42,839 Speaker 1: preserve some piece of a species they were helping to destroy. 66 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaker 1: The misguided actions of museums and scientists delivered a final 67 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:52,200 Speaker 1: killing blow to the great ak in the mid nineteenth century. 68 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,799 Speaker 1: In the summer of eighteen forty three, Scottish sailors killed 69 00:04:56,800 --> 00:04:59,080 Speaker 1: a great awk that they found on the Isle of 70 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:02,240 Speaker 1: Stack in army. They had kept the bird alive on 71 00:05:02,279 --> 00:05:05,160 Speaker 1: their ship for three days, but on the fourth a 72 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 1: powerful storm rose up and the superstitious sailors convinced themselves 73 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:13,480 Speaker 1: that the great awk had conjured it. Then they condemned 74 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:15,839 Speaker 1: the bird as a witch and beat it to death 75 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:19,320 Speaker 1: with a stone that was the last of its kind 76 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:24,080 Speaker 1: ever seen in the British Isles. Four years later, on 77 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:28,039 Speaker 1: July third, eighteen forty four, three sailors landed on the 78 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 1: craggy shores of Eld Island, just off the coast of 79 00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: their native Iceland. They had spotted a pair of great 80 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:38,280 Speaker 1: Ox nesting on the island's rocky peak, and they knew 81 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:41,160 Speaker 1: a merchant who would pay a high price for their skins. 82 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:45,840 Speaker 1: Two of the men easily captured the adult male and female, 83 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:49,719 Speaker 1: which they strangled to death on the spot. It turned 84 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 1: out the female had been incubating a lone egg, but 85 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:55,920 Speaker 1: in the rush to capture its parents, the third man's 86 00:05:55,920 --> 00:06:00,520 Speaker 1: boot had crushed it, ending the species for good. That 87 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:04,000 Speaker 1: was the last confirmed sighting of the great Ok, a 88 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,480 Speaker 1: species of bird that, much like the passenger pigeon, the 89 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:10,920 Speaker 1: moa and the dodo, would not have gone extinct if 90 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:15,640 Speaker 1: not for humans. Today, the remains of great ox are 91 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:19,559 Speaker 1: preserved in museums around the world, though even then only 92 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:24,919 Speaker 1: about eighty taxidermaid specimens are known to exist. The remains 93 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:28,040 Speaker 1: of the last two Great Oks, the ones that were 94 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:31,479 Speaker 1: strangled on ld Island, are now on display at the 95 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:36,960 Speaker 1: Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. Their presence 96 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:40,280 Speaker 1: is a stark reminder of the fragility of the natural 97 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:44,760 Speaker 1: world and of the destructive force of unchecked human greed. 98 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:51,680 Speaker 1: I'm Gay, Blues Gay, and hopefully you now know a 99 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:56,000 Speaker 1: little more about history today than you did yesterday. If 100 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:57,800 Speaker 1: you'd like to keep up with the show, you can 101 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and in Instagram at TDI 102 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:05,520 Speaker 1: HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions, 103 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:08,000 Speaker 1: feel free to send them my way by writing to 104 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:12,520 Speaker 1: this Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to kas B 105 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:15,600 Speaker 1: Bias for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. 106 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:18,920 Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day 107 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:20,280 Speaker 1: in History class.