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Great Auk
The great Auk.
The Great Auk was a large flightless sea-bird that lived around the North Atlantic coasts including Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland and Scotland. It was the Northern Hemisphere equivalent of a penguin. It was hunted to extinction by people. The last known living specimens were killed in 1844.
Henry Shaw (1812-1887) was a famous Shrewsbury taxidermist and it is recorded that he had three specimens of the Great Auk pass through his hands. Two were in the collections of 19th century Shropshire gentlemen but one of these specimens is now in Birmingham and the other in Edinburgh.
The Great Auk specimen in the collection of Shrewsbury Museums Service is believed to be the third specimen handled by Henry Shaw but it is uncertain when it became part of the museum collection as several collections of stuffed birds were donated to the museum during the 19th century without listing the specimens individually.
(Image courtesy of Shrewsbury Museums Service and www.darwincountry.org)