Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.07.2011, Side 22

22
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2011
Birds | Extinction :(
What a bummer about the Geirfugl, huh. Let's try and not eradicate
species from our planet ever again, shall we?
Do you remember the story of the
Great Auk, or as Icelanders like to
call it, the geirfugl? The history of
this extinct bird is staple curricu-
lum in Icelandic schools, probably
because three Icelanders killed the
very last mating pair about 170
years ago. However, "the history of
the Great Auk has faded away" in
Iceland, says Kristinn Haukur Skar-
phé!insson, wildlife ecologist at the
Icelandic Institute of Natural Histo-
ry. Though at first, he says, "nobody
knew they were killing the last auk,"
as soon as the truth of the matter re-
vealed itself, Icelanders had to carry
the burden of a "collective guilt that
we did the Great Auk in."
But we have been massacring this poor,
clumsy bird before humans were techni-
cally humans. Yes, believe it, Neander-
thals hunted Great Auks over 100.000
years ago. And a whole lot of death oc-
curred between then and that notable
day of July 3, 1844 when the book of
Great Auk was slammed shut. So who
should really be held responsible for the
extinction of the Great Auk? How much
of the blame should Icelanders carry on
their shoulders? Could the bird itself
take some of it? Maybe just a little?
POINTING FINGERS, IF ONLY LITTLE
ONES
The Great Auk, in some ways, had it
coming. Living in the wilds of the North
Atlantic and having a picky disposi-
tion when selecting breeding grounds
is akin to accepting only foie gras for
dinner during the Irish potato famine.
Great Auks would only breed on rocky,
remote islands near easily accessible
food sources. They'd settle with no less
than islands with sloping shorelines,
which gave the birds easy access to the
ocean, where they spent the majority of
their time.
The birds were excellent swimmers,
but their ability to traverse land resem-
bled a drunken Icelander on a weekend
night in Reykjavík. Just as easily as you
could net a hipster leaving Bakkus at
5am on a Saturday, you could casually
stroll up to a geirfugl, put 'em in a bag
and eat 'em for dinner with some pota-
toes (the bird, not the hipster). For some
strange reason, these animals didn’t
have an innate fear of humans, which
many cultures took advantage of for
thousands of years, including the Mari-
time Archaic people of Newfoundland
and Saqqaq Inuits of Greenland.
BUT IT'S NOT OKAY
Though the Great Auk made it super
easy for us to wipe them out, it doesn't
exactly warrant our overexploitation.
Yeah, you could probably make a living
out of mugging old ladies on the street,
but the ease of it doesn't make it mor-
ally acceptable (unless they're giving you
sass about your haircut, or something).
Frankly, when pillows become more val-
ued than the survival of a species, it's
hard not to wonder whether humanity
had its priorities straight.
Starting in the eighth century, Great
Auks were hunted in droves for their
feathers. By the mid-sixteenth century,
the breeding colonies along the Euro-
pean boundary of the Atlantic were al-
most completely wiped out by humans
smitten with selling the luxury of down
pillows. Finally by 1775, the Brits banned
the killing of auks for their feathers and
eggs, though the birds could still legally
be killed for bait and food. This was one
of the first environmental laws, which,
in many people's eyes, made the Great
Auk the "emblem for extinct birds," says
Kristinn.
Though the severity of public f log-
ging, the punishment for killing an auk
for feathers, was discouraging, anyone
with minimal intelligence could deduce
an easy way out of publicized embarrass-
ment and torture: say you're hunting the
auk for bait (“Yes, officer, it was only a
cigarette, I swear.”), and save the feath-
ers as a keepsake of your trials and tribu-
lations at sea.
But anything that's worse than reck-
less overindulgence in life, is reckless
overindulgence in death. In a grave
near Port of Choix, Newfoundland that
dates back to around 2.000 B.C., archae-
ologists found a person buried in a suit
made of more than 200 Great Auk skins,
the heads left on for extra bling.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Nothing really tops the way the last Great
Auk of the British Isles was killed. Sorry
Icelanders, you didn't win the barbarian
award this time around. In July of 1840
on the Saint Kilda archipelago in Scot-
land, three local men caught and killed
the very last Great Auk of the region.
They tied the bird up and kept it alive for
three days, until a hefty storm loomed
over their islet. Instead of assuming
that the intermingling of warm and cold
air caused the storm (maybe too logical
for the times), the men took the shitty
weather personally, accused the auk of
stirring the skies with witchcraft, and
beat it to death with a stick. The impact
of the slaughter on the storm's cessation
was inconclusive.
By 1835, after centuries of mass an-
nihilation, one colony of about fifty
auks remained on Eldey, an island off
the coast of Iceland. But when muse-
ums and private collectors found out
the Great Auk had become so scarce,
they commissioned any willing body to
hunt down and kill auks for their skins
and eggs to put on display in their collec-
tions. The irony of this situation couldn't
possibly have evaded the people of the
time. I'd even bet the sign underneath
the specimens on display in museums
read something like, "Great Auk skin,
RARE bird species of the North Atlan-
tic."
On July 3, 1844, three Icelandic sail-
ors by the names of Sigur!ur Ísleifsson,
Ketill Ketilsson and Jón Brandsson, trav-
elled to Eldey to collect specimens as re-
quested by Danish natural history collec-
tor Carl Siemsen. Jón and Sigur!ur each
found and killed the male and female of
the last mating auk pair (thought they
didn't know it at the time), but Ketill was
left empty-handed. Poor Ketill, feeling
left out, decided to smash the last auk
pair's egg with his boot. And that was
that.
OVER BEFORE WE STARTED?
In the world of extinction, great empha-
sis is always put upon the last of a spe-
cies. The events that take place in the
beginning and middle have less weight
because, by default, the animal's num-
bers are probably doing alright then.
But ask any conservationist and they
will tell you that when there's only one
lonely couple left of a species, the game
is already over. So Icelanders, yes, you
technically killed the last hope for the
Great Auk, but widen the scope of the
extinction lens and you certainly weren't
alone.
Words
Vanessa Schipani
Illustration
Steingrímur Gauti Ingólfsson
The Many Mindless Murders Of The Great Auk
Let's blow the whistle on this bird's true killer...but who is that exactly?
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – Eddas and Sagas
The ancient vellums on display.
MILLENNIUM – Icelandic art through the ages.
Phase one. Starts 23 June.
CHILD OF HOPE – Youth and Jón Sigur!sson
Tribute to the leader of the independence movement.
EXHIBITIONS - GUIDED TOURS
CAFETERIA - CULTURE SHOP
The Culture House – "jó!menningarhúsi!
National Centre for Cultural Heritage
Hverfisgata 15 · 101 Reykjavík (City Centre)
Tel: 545 1400 · thjodmenning.is · kultur.is
Open daily between 11 am and 5 pm
Free guided tour of THE MEDIEVAL
MANUSCRIPTS weekdays at 3 pm,
except Wednesdays.
“Frankly, when pillows become more valued than
the survival of a species, it's hard not to wonder
whether humanity had its priorities straight”