What bird went extinct in the North Pole?

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asked Jul 2 in Birds by Sussyboyss (860 points)
What bird went extinct in the North Pole?

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answered Jul 11 by cedvernon (3,020 points)
The bird that went extinct in the North Pole was the Great Auk.

On July 3, 1844, fishermen killed the last confirmed pair of great auks (Pinguinus impennis) at Eldey Island, Iceland.

The great auk, was a large flightless bird native to the North Atlantic.

It once had a population in the millions.

The great auk is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century.

It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus.

The great auk was known to dive to depths of 75 m and it has been claimed that the species was able to dive to depths of 1 km.

To conserve energy, most dives were shallow.

It also could hold its breath for 15 minutes, longer than a seal.

Because the great auk is extinct it cannot be cloned, but its DNA can be used to alter the genome of its closest relative, the razorbill, and breed the hybrids to create a species that will be very similar to the original great auks.

The Little Ice Age may have reduced the population of the great auk by exposing more of their breeding islands to predation by polar bears, but massive exploitation by humans for their down drastically reduced the population, with recent evidence indicating the latter alone is likely the primary driver of it's extinction.

Great auks waddled awkwardly on land, making them easy prey for hunters.

They were slaughtered in huge numbers when they came ashore to breed.

European fishermen and whalers devastated the largest colony, in Newfoundland, despite a petition in 1775 to stop the massacre.

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