The Great Auk

The Great Auk PDF Author: Errol Fuller
Publisher: Bunker Hill Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 9781593730031
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
A seabird whose extinction was entirely the work of humankind, the last two recorded great auk's were killed on June 3, 1844. This book pays homage to this incredible species.

The Great Auk

The Great Auk PDF Author: Errol Fuller
Publisher: Bunker Hill Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 9781593730031
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Get Book Here

Book Description
A seabird whose extinction was entirely the work of humankind, the last two recorded great auk's were killed on June 3, 1844. This book pays homage to this incredible species.

The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk

The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk PDF Author: Jan Thornhill
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
ISBN: 1554989922
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 46

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Book Description
For hundreds of thousands of years, Great Auks thrived. And then they were gone ... 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. In this stunningly illustrated non-fiction picture book, award-winning author and illustrator Jan Thornhill tells the tragic story of these birds that “weighed as much as a sack of potatoes and stood as tall as a preteen’s waist.” Their demise came about in part because of their anatomy. They could swim swiftly underwater, but their small wings meant they couldn’t fly and their feet were so far back on their bodies, they couldn’t walk very well. Still the birds managed to escape their predators much of the time ... until humans became seafarers. Great Auks were pursued first by Vikings, then by Inuit, Beothuk and finally European hunters. Their numbers rapidly dwindled. They became collectors’ items — their skins were stuffed for museums, to be displayed along with their beautiful eggs. (There are some amazing stories about these stuffed auks — one was stolen from a German museum during WWII by Russian soldiers; another was flown to Iceland and given a red-carpet welcome at the airport.) Although undeniably tragic, the final demise of the Great Auk led to the birth of the conservation movement. Laws were eventually passed to prevent the killing of birds during the nesting season, and similar laws were later extended to other wildlife species. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area.

Who Killed the Great Auk?

Who Killed the Great Auk? PDF Author: Jeremy Gaskell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780198564782
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
"Who Killed the Great Auk? takes us on a tour of some of the wildest and most remote communities on earth. We travel with Audubon to Labrador, sail to the remote Scottish island of St. Kilda, experience the hardship of life in the Newfoundland colonies, and follow the peregrinations of intrepid naturalists as they put to sea in search of the very last of the Great Auks."--Jacket.

The Great Auk, or Garefowl

The Great Auk, or Garefowl PDF Author: Symington Grieve
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108081479
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This 1885 work collects together information on the extinct great auk, including its distribution, various names, and physical remains.

Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club

Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club PDF Author: Nuttall Ornithological Club
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ornithology
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description


The Ascent of Birds

The Ascent of Birds PDF Author: John Reilly
Publisher: Pelagic Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784271705
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
When and where did the ancestors of modern birds evolve? What enabled them to survive the meteoric impact that wiped out the dinosaurs? How did these early birds spread across the globe and give rise to the 10,600-plus species we recognise today ― from the largest ratites to the smallest hummingbirds? Based on the latest scientific discoveries and enriched by personal observations, The Ascent of Birds sets out to answer these fundamental questions. The Ascent of Birds is divided into self-contained chapters, or stories, that collectively encompass the evolution of modern birds from their origins in Gondwana, over 100 million years ago, to the present day. The stories are arranged in chronological order, from tinamous to tanagers, and describe the many dispersal and speciation events that underpin the world's 10,600-plus species. Although each chapter is spearheaded by a named bird and focuses on a specific evolutionary mechanism, the narrative will often explore the relevance of such events and processes to evolution in general. The book starts with The Tinamou’s Story, which explains the presence of flightless birds in South America, Africa, and Australasia, and dispels the cherished role of continental drift as an explanation for their biogeography. It also introduces the concept of neoteny, an evolutionary trick that enabled dinosaurs to become birds and humans to conquer the planet. The Vegavis's Story explores the evidence for a Cretaceous origin of modern birds and why they were able to survive the asteroid collision that saw the demise not only of dinosaurs but of up to three-quarters of all species. The Duck's Story switches to sex: why have so few species retained the ancestral copulatory organ? Or, put another way, why do most birds exhibit the paradoxical phenomenon of penis loss, despite all species requiring internal fertilisation? The Hoatzin's Story reveals unexpected oceanic rafting from Africa to South America: a stranger-than-fiction means of dispersal that is now thought to account for the presence of other South American vertebrates, including geckos and monkeys. The latest theories underpinning speciation are also explored. The Manakin’s Story, for example, reveals how South America’s extraordinarily rich avifauna has been shaped by past geological, oceanographic and climatic changes, while The Storm-Petrel’s Story examines how species can evolve from an ancestral population despite inhabiting the same geographical area. The thorny issue of what constitutes a species is discussed in The Albatross's Story, while The Penguin’s Story explores the effects of environment on phenotype ― in the case of the Emperor penguin, the harshest on the planet. Recent genomic advances have given scientists novel approaches to explore the distant past and have revealed many unexpected journeys, including the unique overland dispersal of an early suboscine from Asia to South America (The Sapayoa’s Story) and the blackbird's ancestral sweepstake dispersals across the Atlantic (The Thrush’s Story). Additional vignettes update more familiar concepts that encourage speciation: sexual selection (The Bird-of-Paradise's Story); extended phenotypes (The Bowerbird's Story); hybridisation (The Sparrow's Story); and 'great speciators' (The White-eye's Story). Finally, the book explores the raft of recent publications that help explain the evolution of cognitive skills (The Crow's Story); plumage colouration (The Starling's Story); and birdsong (The Finch's Story)

An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It

An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It PDF Author: Jessie Greengrass
Publisher: JM Originals
ISBN: 1473610869
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 87

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Book Description
WINNER OF THE EDGE HILL SHORT STORY PRIZE 2016 SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES/PFD YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2016 'Greengrass is undoubtedly that rare thing, a genuinely new and assured voice in prose. Her work is precise, properly moving, quirky and heartfelt' A. L. Kennedy The twelve stories in this startling collection range over centuries and across the world. There are stories about those who are lonely, or estranged, or out of time. There are hauntings, both literal and metaphorical; and acts of cruelty and neglect but also of penance. Some stories concern themselves with the present, and the mundane circumstances in which people find themselves: a woman who feels stuck in her life imagines herself in different jobs - as a lighthouse keeper in Wales, or as a guard against polar bears in a research station in the Arctic. Some stories concern themselves with the past: a sixteenth-century alchemist and doctor, whose arrogance blinds him to people's dissatisfaction with their lives until he experiences it himself. Finally, in the title story, a sailor gives his account - violent, occasionally funny and certainly tragic - of the decline of the Great Auk.

Bulletin

Bulletin PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 670

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Book Description


Bulletin

Bulletin PDF Author: United States National Museum
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 968

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Book Description


Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl

Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl PDF Author: Arthur Cleveland Bent
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 9780486254227
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 714

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Book Description
Copious details on behavior, plumage, nesting and migratory habits, field marks, much more.