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SUMMARY:The Great Auk - extinct icon - Professor Tim Birkhead - Sheffield 
 University
DTSTART:20250828T120000Z
DTEND:20250828T130000Z
UID:TALK235309@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Emilio Aldorino
DESCRIPTION:The Great Auk was a goose-sized penguin-like seabird superbly 
 adapted for underwater flight. Indigenous peoples hunted them but had litt
 le impact on numbers. But once Europeans stumbled upon the Great Auks' New
  World breeding colonies in the 16th century\, they couldn't believe their
  luck. Those colonies became fast-food restaurants\, with hungry sailors\,
  gorging themselves on the liver-flavoured auk flesh and stripping the bir
 d of its feathers to stuff mattresses.\n \nThe last few birds were killed 
 in the name of science in 1844\, but the Great Auk lived on\, with collect
 ors obsessing over their skins\, eggs and skeletons through dodgy dealings
  involving staggering amounts of money. One hundred and eighty years after
  the last great auks were killed\, ornithologist Tim Birkhead found himsel
 f the recipient of the archive of a man who accumulated more Great Auk ski
 ns and eggs than anyone else. Those relics — all tainted with pathologic
 al obsession\, money and skulduggery —comprise the Great Auk’s extraor
 dinary but revealing afterlife.
LOCATION:Zoom or in-person at Sainsbury Laboratory\, 47 Bateman St\, Cambr
 idge CB2 1LR
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