"For hundreds of thousands of years great auks thrived in the icy seas of the North Atlantic, bobbing on the waves, diving for fish, and struggling up onto rocky shores to mate and hatch their fluffy chicks. But by 1844, not a single one of these magnificent birds was alive ... Although undeniably tragic, the final demise of the Great Auk led to the birth of the conservation movement"--Amazon.com.
From the community