The Great Auk: a seabird whose extinction was entirely the work of humankind, the great auk ceased to exist on the morning of the third day of June, 1844, when the last two recorded great auks were killed by three fishermen on the island of Eldey, a few miles south of Iceland in the North Atlantic Ocean.

For thousands of years they had swum the Atlantic in their millions and flocked to their breeding grounds.

An icon of extinction, the great auk has been commemorated in almost every artistic and visual form, from cigarette boxes to bronze and marble statues, and immortalized as one of the most tragic man-made extinctions.

Errol Fuller is a world-renowned authority on extinct birds and the author of many books concerned with extinction and conservation.