Swift and agile in water, great auks lived most of their lives at sea. But each spring, they came with their life-long partners to mate on the isolated rock islands of the North Atlantic. Flightless and awkward on land, they were easy targets. 

By the mid-1500s, their numbers had taken a drastic decline as hunters sought their meat, eggs, oil and especially their feathers. The last documented pair of great auks was killed on Eldey Island, off the southwestern tip of Iceland, on June 3, 1844.