How's this for a #BestBird - a juvenile Great Auk that is probably the youngest sub-adult specimen to be found anywhere in the world. Great Auk went extinct about 1852. This bird is from the collection of the spiffingly-named Marmaduke Tunstall #CURATORBATTLEpic.twitter.com/TWJEtJQ7tK
— Great North Museum: Hancock (@GNM_Hancock) May 7, 2020
Are there penguins in the North? No - those niches are filled by auks. Before it went extinct, the Great Auk was called pen gwyn (white cap) in Welsh. That is probably where we get the name from. pic.twitter.com/5JeIJeToMG
These penguins share their home on Crozet Islands with a hydro-acoustic station, part of the @ctbto_alerts global monitoring network to detect nuclear test explosions.
