Chapter 3 (Sarah)

The main focus of this chapter are the great auks, which used to be known as the first penguin. The extinction of the great auks is important for two reasons. First, they were a common species that were easy to find but started to disappear and can no longer be found, and it also opened up a hole in Darwin's theory of natural selection. The great auks had a large populations, enough resources, and didn't have many predators to make them decrease at the rate that they did. The reason for this is because the extinction of the great auks was mainly due to humans and not the environment. Humans would hunt or just take parts of animals that they felt were useful without carng about the consequences. This showed that humans can have a major effect on a species and their survival. But this was never really questioned or looked into further. Species such as the Charles Island tortoise and the Steller's sea cow also went extinct because of the actions of humans but some of the scientists mentioned in the chapter never tried to help preserve the species but cared more about proving their theories and speculations about the environment rather than protecting it.