There are quite a few animals that have been driven to extinction because of humanity. The passenger pigeon, once numbering 5 billion in the North American continent, went extinct in about 100 years due to overhunting by white settlers. Steller's sea cow was wiped out by exploiting their habit of gathering to protect wounded companions. The paradise parrot became popular as a pet, but because they were difficult to breed and keep, they died quickly, leading to even more overhunting and eventual extinction. And so on... Each has its own depressing reasons, backgrounds, hunting methods, and anecdotes, but among them all, the one that leaves me with the worst aftertaste is the great auk. With its plump silhouette, black and white mottled pattern, and short wings, it couldn't fly, was a strong swimmer, and waddled adorably on land. It was the first bird in the world to be called a "penguin."
These great auks were hunted for their meat, eggs, feathers, and fat, but at first, they weren't overhunted to the point of extinction. However, triggered by a certain expedition that killed over 1,000 birds in a single day, they were captured in massive numbers along coasts everywhere, and their breeding grounds shrank rapidly... Eventually, the great auk's breeding ground was reduced to a single skerry off the coast of Iceland. Because this island was surrounded by cliffs, people could not approach it, and the birds were narrowly protected from humanity. However, an earthquake accompanying a submarine volcanic eruption caused the skerry to sink, and their final breeding ground vanished. At this point, they were already on the verge of extinction, but instead of protecting them, people assigned rare value to them, and specimens began to be traded at high prices. People hoping to make a quick fortune hunted down the remaining great auks one after another... And then came the final day. A man discovered a pair of great auks incubating an egg on a cliff on an island. He beat the male to death as it tried to protect the female, strangled the female as she tried to protect the egg, and smashed the very last great auk's egg.
The misfortune of losing their breeding ground to a natural disaster, the way the very last individuals were killed... There are many upsetting points, but personally, what bothers me the most is that even after knowing they were an endangered species, people still placed a premium on their rarity and hunted them anyway.
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