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b'Let\\u2019s learn about the great auk this week, along with some lookalike birds, penguins!\\n\\nA great auk, as painted by Audubon:\\n\\n\\n\\nA razorbill, the auk\\u2019s closest living relative:\\n\\n\\n\\nA fairy penguin, so tiny:\\n\\n\\n\\nAn emperor penguin, so big:\\n\\n\\n\\nTony Signorini wearing his Hoax Shoes:\\n\\n\\n\\nShow transcript:\\n\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\n\\nThis week\\u2019s topic is one I\\u2019ve had on my list to cover for some time, and a couple of people whose names I forgot to write down also suggested. It\\u2019s the great auk, and while we\\u2019re at it we\\u2019re going to learn about penguins too.\\n\\nPicture this bird in your mind. It\\u2019s big, close to three feet tall, or 85 cm, black with a white belly and white spots over the eyes during breeding season. It has a big dark bill and eats fish and crustaceans. Its feet are webbed and it\\u2019s flightless, because instead of flying, it swims, fast and agile in the water but clumsy on land. It\\u2019s social, nesting in big colonies and laying one egg, which both parents incubate. Both parents also help feed the chick when it hatches. Pairs mate for life. And it lives in cold waters of the North Atlantic from eastern Canada to Greenland and Iceland over to the western coast of Europe.\\n\\nWait a minute, you say, knowledgeably, because you know a thing or two about penguins. Penguins live in the southern hemisphere. What is going on??\\n\\nThe great auk is going on, my friend. And while the similarities between the great auk and the various species of penguin are striking, they\\u2019re not closely related at all. The great auk\\u2019s scientific name is Pinguinus impennis, and it was sometimes called a penguin, but the penguin is named after the auk because of the similarities between the two. The most obvious difference between the great auk and the penguin is the bill. Penguins have relatively small, sharp bills, but great auk bills were much larger and heavier, grooved and with a hook at the end.\\n\\nSo is the great auk still around? I sure made it sound like it was still around, didn\\u2019t I? Unfortunately, no. The last known great auks were killed on June 3, 1844, with a few sightings in the years after. The last probable sighting of a great auk was in 1852. But it had been a really common bird for a long time. What was it like, and what happened to it?\\n\\nThe great auk lived almost its whole life in the water. It only came out to breed and lay eggs, one egg per couple. Its babies grew fast and took to the sea when only a few weeks old, but the parents continued to feed their baby and care for it in the water. Sometimes a young auk would ride on its parent\\u2019s back as it swam.\\n\\nIt was incredibly at home in the water. It could hold its breath for something like 15 minutes, could dive deeply and swim so quickly that it could shoot up out of the water to land on ledges well above the ocean\\u2019s surface. Because of its swimming ability and its size, it wasn\\u2019t scared of very many animals. Polar bears, orcas, and a few other large predators sometimes ate it, but its main predator was these aggressive apes called humans. Maybe you\\u2019ve heard of them.\\n\\nPeople killed the great auk for food, for feathers, and to use its skin and bones as decorative items. Its remains have been found at Neandertal campsites too. And because it was a large, plentiful bird, people hunted it and hunted it and hunted it. The great auk was already nearly extinct around Europe by the mid 16th century, since it was killed for its down, which was used to stuff pillows. Auk eggs were also collected for food. And as the bird became rarer, museums decided they had better get specimens while they could. The last great auks were killed so they could be stuffed and mounted.\\n\\nSo if there\\u2019s a great auk, is there a lesser auk? There is, and it\\u2019s still around! The little auk is only about 8 inches long, or 21 cm, but unlike the great auk it can fly. It eats small fish, crustaceans, and invertebrates.'