The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction

This bland history by Pálsson (Down to Earth), an anthropology professor emeritus at the University of Iceland, traces how British naturalists John Wolley and Alfred Newton’s 1858 expedition to Iceland to study the great auk, a flightless aquatic bird that once thrived in the North Atlantic, revolutionized the scientific understanding of extinction. Drawing on Wolley’s notebooks, Pálsson recounts the ornithologists’ journey in excessive detail, covering their ride on a 20-passenger steamer from Scotland to Reykjavík, their lodging at a “two-story timber-framed” hotel called the Club, and the life story of the boat foreman whose crew rowed tumultuous waters searching for the bird on the naturalists’ behalf. After Wolley and Newton’s conversations with locals revealed that no great auks had been seen or caught in years, the scientists concluded the last of the great auks had likely been killed by hunters in 1844. This revelation led Newton to conclude that humans had caused the bird’s extinction, a possibility previously thought impossible, and he became an outspoken environmentalist. Pálsson makes a persuasive case that Newton made a “vital contribution to the framing of our modern concept of extinction,” but unfortunately, the dry, protracted telling of the largely uneventful 1858 expedition is more tedious than enlightening. This feels like a missed opportunity. Photos. (Feb.)