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Great Auk | Daily Animal Facts

Animal profile

Great Auk

Pinguinus impennis

AvesCold North Atlantic waters, breeding on remote rocky islandsExtinct

Field profile

The great auk was a large flightless seabird of the North Atlantic, standing roughly eighty centimetres tall, black above and white below. It swam with its wings in the manner of its smaller auk relatives and came ashore only to breed. The last confirmed pair was killed on the Icelandic islet of Eldey in 1844.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2026-07-14

Great Auk

The great auk carried the name penguin first

European sailors called this flightless North Atlantic bird the penguin long before anyone reached Antarctica. When explorers met similar black-and-white divers in the southern ocean they reused the name, even though the two groups are not closely related.

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