The Great Auk
Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife - A DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR
- Publisher's listprice GBP 12.99
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5 864 Ft (5 585 Ft + 5% VAT)
The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.
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- Discounted price 4 691 Ft (4 468 Ft + 5% VAT)
- Discount is valid until: 30 June 2026
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5 864 Ft
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Delivery time is estimated on our previous experiences. We give estimations only, because we order from outside Hungary, and the delivery time mainly depends on how quickly the publisher supplies the book. Faster or slower deliveries both happen, but we do our best to supply as quickly as possible.
Product details:
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
- Date of Publication 18 June 2026
- ISBN 9781399415750
- Binding Paperback
- No. of pages288 pages
- Size 214x134x26 mm
- Weight 300 g
- Language English
- Illustrations Black and white photography and illustrations throughout; 8 page colour section 700
Categories
Long description:
The life, death and afterlife of one of the true icons of extinction, the Great Auk
The great auk was a flightless, goose-sized bird superbly adapted for life at sea. Fat, flush with feathers and easy to capture, the birds were in trouble whenever sailors visited their once-remote breeding colonies. Places like Funk Island, off north-east Newfoundland, became scenes of unimaginable slaughter, with birds killed in their millions. By 1800 the auks of Funk Island were gone. A scramble by private collectors for specimens of the final few birds then began, a bloody, unthinking destruction of one of the world's most extraordinary species.
But their extinction in 1844 wasn't the end of the great auk story, as the bird went on to have a remarkable afterlife; skins, eggs and skeletons became the focus for dozens of collectors in a story of pathological craving and unscrupulous dealings that goes on to this day.
In a book rich with insight and packed with tales of birds and of people, Tim Birkhead reveals previously unimagined aspects of the bird's life before humanity, its death on the killing shores of the North Atlantic, and the unrelenting subsequent quest for its remains.
The great auk remains a symbol of human folly and the necessity of conservation. This book tells its story.
