Year: 1979
Type: article
Abstract: The flightless Great Auk (?inguinus impennis), the largest of all Recent Alcidae, was exterminated in 1844 (Greenway 1958), and no one who can properly be called a naturalist ever encountered the bird in life.As a consequence, virtually no details are known of its behavior or ecology.One of the principal nesting grounds of the Great Auk was on Funk Island, off the northeast coast of Newfoundland.Several expeditions have been made to Funk Island for the purpose of obtaining remains of these birds, the best documented of these being the visit of the schooner Grampus in 1887, in which F. A. Lucas was a participant.Lucas (1890) published a report on this expedition, including a brief history of the Great Auk and observations on its osteology.Most of the Great Auk bones from Funk Island were accumulated as a result of the birds being slaughtered for oil, the carcasses being rendered on the island and discarded there.Presumably the contents of the digestive tract were discarded with the carcasses, and it therefore seemed likely that hard parts of prey might be preserved in the soil along with Great Auk bones.While there is no reason to doubt that the Great Auk ate mainly fish, as do most other North Atlantic alcids, it would be of interest to determine the sizes and specific identity of its prey, as this might lead to a better understanding of the ecological requirements of the bird.Until recently there was a venerable wooden crate, stored in the basement of the National Museum of Natural History, that contained the unsorted bones of Great Auks, still in the peaty soil from which they were exhumed on Funk Island by the Grampus expedition.This material was evidently in excess of that needed by Lucas for his studies and had never been processed.There is now no way of knowing if this sample represents a collection from a single site or a composite from several sites.From this material we recovered the following long bones of ?inguinus impennis: 156 carpometacarpi, 148 ulnae, 99 humeri, 126 coracolds, 124 femora, 123 tibiotarsi, and 150 tarsometatarsi, as well as many cranial elements and an abundance of all the lesser parts of the skeleton.Only six bones of birds other than Great Auk were found; these belong to at least two murres (Uria sp.).Thus, any prey remains from this sample would almost certainly have come from Pinguinus.After the removal of the large bones, there remained about 25,000 cc of matrix, which was subjected to several washings and then screened through fine mesh.The resulting concentrate was examined and sorted under magnification.In the process, hundreds of sclerotic plates and seven stapedes of Great Auk were retrieved.Probably because of the acidic nature of the soil, no otoliths of fish were preserved.Other fish remains were sparse but nevertheless prove of interest.The identity of these specimens is as follows.Menhaden, Brevoortia cf.tyrannus (Clupeidae).--Seventy-ninescales and scale fragments to about 11 mm in diameter.These scales are from fish about 140-190 mm standard length (SL).Shad, 211osa sp.(Clupeidae).--Twoscales from a fish about 120 mm SL.Only American shad (21.sapidissima) and alewife (A.pseudoharengus) occur north to Labrador today.Capelin, Mallotus villosus (Osmeridae).--Sevensmall vertebrae, 1.4-1.6 mm long.These are from fish 80-I00 mm SL that would have been 1-2 yr old.Indeterminable Gadidae.--Threeanterior vertebrae, 1 mm long and 3 mm wide, from fish 120-150 mm SL; 1 right fifth pharyngobranchial, 7.1 mm long, from a fish about 250 mm SL; 6 fragmentary vertebrae.Three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus (Gasterosteidae).--Oneright pectoral spine, 6.2 mm long, slightly worn; 1 dorsal spine pterygiophore, 4 mm long in midline.These elements represent a fish 100-120 mm SL, which is equal to or exceeds the hitherto known maximum size of the species.Morone cf.saxatilis (Percichthyidae).--Onecomplete (6.1 x 7.1 mm) and 2 fragmentary scales.These could possibly be from the white perch, M. americanus.They represent a fish 280-320 mm SL, near or about the maximum for white perch, but the size of a 2-or 3-yr-old striped bass, M. saxatilis.Flatfish, cf.Pleuronectidae.--Oneleft supracleithrum, 6.1 mm long.This bone is from a fish 80-100 mm SL.Indeterminable Teleostei.--Sevenvertebrae, 1.5-2 mm long; 1 glossohyal (?); 1 exoccipital facet for reception of atlas vertebra; 1 half fin ray; 6 bone fragments.
Authors: Storrs L. Olson, C. C. Swift, C. Mokhiber
Language: English
Topic: Avian ecology and behavior
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W122983961