Hat, storm: iStock. In Scotland, the last one was thought to have been caught and killed on the remote island archipelago of St Kilda. The last Great Auk, a 3 foot penguin-like animal, was killed by Scottish villagers because it was thought to be a witch Sep 16, 2016 Ian Smith The great auk ( Pinguinus impennis ) was a flightless bird of the alcid family that became extinct in the mid-19th century.
It is the only British bird made extinct in historic times. The Great Auk is large and flightless seabird, it was also known as a penguin and garefowl and was hunted to extinction for its oil, feathers and eggs. Perhaps executed is not quite fair – there was no trial. Posted on July 18, 2012 by ladyoftheabyss Posted in Daily Posts Tagged Arts, Billy Graham, Brazil, Great Auk, Imperial College London, Passenger Pigeon, Psychology, Social Sciences. Merely a group of sailors who decided that the auk was responsible for the storms they’d encountered, and took it upon themselves to beat it to death with sticks. They tied it up and kept it alive for three days, until a large storm arose. Believing that the auk was a witch and the cause of the storm, they then killed it by beating it with a stick.
Condemning it as “a maelstrom-conjuring witch,” they stoned it to death. The last Great Auk in the British Isles was killed on St Kilda in 1840. PIC: Wikimedia. The Great Auks at Home, oil on canvas by John Gerrard Keulemans. Hat, storm: iStock. The last colony of Great Auks lived on Geirfuglasker (the "Great Auk … The auk hadn’t asked to sail with them.
The men tied the bird up and kept it alive for about three days until a storm hit. It was the last of its kind to ever be seen on the British Isles.
The last Great Auk in Britain was executed as a witch, or so the story goes. Believing that the great auk was a witch and that the storm was its doing, the three men beat the birds with a stick, killing the last great auk in Britain. The seabird was a familiar sight to sailors and islanders in the North Atlantic until the mid 1800s. Great Auk: Nature Picture Library, Alamy.