The Great Auk: Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife
Professor Tim Birkhead
This is our annual joint lecture with the University of Reading.
Tim Birkhead is Emeritus Professor of behaviour and evolution at the University of Sheffield. His research on promiscuity and sperm competition in birds helped to reshape our understanding of bird mating systems. He initiated and has maintained a long-term population study of Guillemots on Skomer since 1972. Tim has written 15 books, including Promiscuity (2000), the award-winning The Wisdom of Birds (2008), Bird Sense (2012) and The Most Perfect Thing (2016). His most recent book is on the Guillemot’s closest relative, the Great Auk.
Few extinct birds are as instantly recognisable as the Great Auk. After centuries of persecution, the last Great Auks were killed in 1844, before any ornithologist or scientist ever saw one alive. Piecing together this bird’s extraordinary life has been a challenge, but research by Tim and others, using the few surviving eggs and skins, in the last few years has revealed new information and exposed some old errors. It is these relics and the dodgy way they were sometimes acquired that constitute the Great Auk’s mysterious afterlife.
We will be meeting in person in Room 109 in the Palmer Building as usual, but you can also join remotely via Zoom if you prefer. Please click here to join the meeting. You can join from 7.15 pm and the meeting will start at 7.30 pm. You will be muted when you join; please stay muted except when you have been asked to unmute, for recent sightings, questions, etc.
Non-members are welcome to attend this FREE event, which is suitable for anyone interested in wild birds or conservation - you don't have to be an expert.
