Great Auks

Stephen · Post by **Stephen** » 20 Jan 2007, 20:11

Firstly, I must point out that my knowledge of ornithology is minimal. But the first time I read The Island of Adventure, I REALLY wanted to believe Bill's suggestion (later sadly revealed as a bluff) that just because Great Auks were officially extinct, it didn't mean to say there weren't any left in the wild. It seemed perfectly logical to me. After all, how can you keep track of every single seabird out there?

So, as flippant as it may sound, has anyone here seen a Great Auk? Or do you at least believe they could still exist somewhere out there? After all, they found a fish (Coelacanth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth) in the 1930s that had previously thought to have been extinct since prehistoric times. So why not a Great Auk, only "extinct" since 1844?

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 20 Jan 2007, 21:55

I didn't read the Adventure books in the correct order as a child and The Island of Adventure was probably the third or fourth title I read, but Jack's obsession with finding the extinct Great Auk captured my imagination and I desperately wanted him to succeed. After reading that book, I felt very close to Jack. He came across to me as an independent person - a loner and a dreamer who didn't need Lucy-Ann quite as much as she needed him. When he failed to achieve his dream of finding a Great Auk in Island, I hoped that he might do so in one of the other books and I was disappointed when he didn't.

Funnily enough, a supposed Great Auk sighting is mentioned in another of my favourite books from childhood - Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter. The Ingalls Wilder books are autobiography rather than fiction of course, and Laura was convinced that a bird Pa found sheltering in a haystack from the bitter winter winds was a Great Auk - "...it looked exactly like the picture of the great auk in Pa's big green book, The Wonders of the Animal World." That was in the winter of 1880-81 but it seems unlikely that the bird could have been a Great Auk, since the last confirmed sighting was in 1844 as you said, Stephen.

[Stephen:] "So, as flippant as it may sound, has anyone here seen a Great Auk?"

I saw one last year in London, actually. Unfortunately it was in a glass case in the Natural History Museum, and was stuffed! But I stood and stared at it for ages and thought of Jack Trent.

Anita

Lucky Star · Post by **Lucky Star** » 20 Jan 2007, 23:36

Wow i must go to the Natural History Museum and have a look. I believe I too would think immediately of Jack if I saw the great Auk.

He was very dissapointed at not finding one in Island but I have always thought that he got over it in the following books what with finding Golden Eagles, Puffins and everything else that they met in Sea.

He came across to me as an independent person - a loner and a dreamer who didn't need Lucy-Ann quite as much as she needed him.

Jack is possibly my favourite EB character. I imagine he grew up to be a professor of Ornithology and write books on the subject. A nicer, more wonderful version of old Horace Tipperlong perhaps.

Timmy-the-dog · Post by **Timmy-the-dog** » 21 Jan 2007, 00:51

I can just see you staring at the Great Auk, Anita. I remember doing exactly the same thing about 40 years ago!!

Timmy

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 21 Jan 2007, 09:34

It's lucky it was in a glass case then, Timmy, protected from your sharp teeth!

I was also interested in Dodos as a child, after reading Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books. There were one or two stuffed Dodos in the Natural History Museum as well. When I was about ten our teacher asked us to write a story set in the future (2001, I think!) and my story featured rediscovered Dodos.

Anita

Ming · Post by **Ming** » 21 Jan 2007, 09:41

Oh, what it is to be a nature lover....writing about dodos, great auks, sailing around on the seas, keeping pets, gardening, creating a dream island, seeing the colourful sunset, feed the deer, run after the rabbits, gaze in wonder at the falcon, I've gone into dreamland....

If you don't believe the deer and falcon part, I'm not joking, I have an uncle who keeps deer, falcons, dogs, cats, goats, pigeons etc etc, in his house and the gardens, and that amde my father crazy, and he is looking about everywhere for deer to keep in our house! Not that I mind though, I love animals...

Stephen · Post by **Stephen** » 21 Jan 2007, 10:23

Great Auk

Razorbill

You can certainly see why Jack, fired up with thoughts of finding his beloved bird mistook one for the other. To be honest, I never realized how much like penguins they resembled.

Steve Alpe · Post by **Steve Alpe** » 22 Jan 2007, 16:06

Obviously doing something wrong would let me copy a picture of a Dodo in here.

URL instead

http://www.dodopad.com/dodofact/dodofact.htm

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 22 Jan 2007, 22:36

Interesting stuff. It's amazing what subjects crop up in a discussion of Enid Blyton. I've always believed that, contrary to what critics say about Enid Blyton being a lightweight and undemanding read, she inspires her readers tremendously, leaving them with an enquiring mind and an interest in the world around them. Surely the varied posts on this Forum are proof of that.

Anita

Timmy-the-dog · Post by **Timmy-the-dog** » 23 Jan 2007, 10:42

Couldn't agree more, Anita. I mentioned before looking a t the Great Auk in the NHM. I did my "big summer project" at Primary school on the
Great Auk - totally inspired by EB and it's one of the few things about that
period of time which I remember quite clearly (I think!!). I drew very bad maps of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia etc, etc. My parents kept it for years but I've no idea what happened to it in the end - like soooo many things........

Yes, it does look like a penguin. I think its Latin name actually means penguin, that's from memory too - must look it up

cheers

Timmy

Ming · Post by **Ming** » 23 Jan 2007, 11:38

They do look penguinish!

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 23 Jan 2007, 13:40

[Timmy-the-dog:] "I did my 'big summer project' at Primary school on the Great Auk - totally inspired by EB."

Anita

Post by **Anita Bensoussane** » 17 May 2008, 15:36

I recently came across the following article about extinct birds, which I found very interesting:

http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/13/stories ... 471100.htm" target="_blank

I think Jack would have been thrilled by the final paragraphs, which mention the Great Auk and the possibility (however remote) that some "extinct" birds could still be out there somewhere:

Is there any chance — however remote — that any of the three best known extinct birds in history could still be alive, awaiting rediscovery? In ascending order of notoriety, they are the passenger pigeon, whose flocks once darkened the skies over North America; the great auk, the last British example of which was killed by islanders who thought it was a witch; and finally the dodo, which fell victim to hungry sailors and the even hungrier dogs, cats and rats they brought with them.

Were any of these birds to be found again, it would be front-page news all over the world. Sadly, there is about as much chance of this happening as of Elvis being found alive. But then again, we can always dream ...

Incidentally, in the 1982 annual-sized book of The Island of Adventure ,based on the film version, the Great Auk, a flightless bird, is said to be flying near the Isle of Gloom:

"It's a Great Auk!" cried Jack. "It is, it is! There it goes." He swung round to follow the flight of the bird. "Oh - it's gone." He sighed with frustration, sill scanning the skies for the elusive bird.

We watched that scene from the film at the Enid Blyton Day this year. Enid Blyton doesn't make that mistake in her original story - it was an error introduced by the makers of the film and accompanying book!

Anita

Lucky Star · Post by **Lucky Star** » 17 May 2008, 18:39

The last Great Auk was killed because people thought it was a witch?

Truly the truth is stranger than fiction, what an end for a species. Very interesting article Anita. I cant remember, did Jack ever discuss the Great Auk again in any of the subsequent books or was it only mentioned in Island?

Maggie Knows · Post by **Maggie Knows** » 17 May 2008, 20:17

The Great Auk, unlike its extant relatives, was flightless, so vulnerable to hunting by humans. Sadly, we will never see it again.

The hunt for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker continues. Most ornithologists do not believe the evidence that has been so far offered for its rediscovery.

But long believed extinct species certainly do occasionally turn up. A classic example is Gilbert's Potoroo, a small rat-kangaroo that was thought extinct for over 100 years before a small population was found in 1994. Amazingly, it was found in the same small area (Two People's Bay, near Albany, Western Australia) where another long thought extinct species, the Nosiy Scrub Bird, was rediscovered in the 1960s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert%27s_Potoroo" target="_blank

In April I was lucky enough to visit a nature reserve that serves (owing to fences and poison baits to deter cats and foxes) as a breeding centre for rare marsupials, including some species where the numbers are down to a 100 or so.

It's a bit odd, given that I'm "mad keen" on wildlife myself, that I don't relate to Jack a bit more as a character. But I'm afraid that I find him a bit one dimensional really...

Great Auks

Great Auks

Re: Great Auks

Re: Great Auks

Re: Great Auks