The Lost Great Auk , a striking bronze statue has been unveiled on the Orkney island of Papa Westray, marking a powerful tribute to one of the last of these extinct seabirds, which was killed there in 1813.
The life-sized statue is a faithful replica of the preserved specimen held by the Natural History Museum in London, thanks to cutting-edge 3D scanning technology.
We were honoured to play a pivotal role in the heritage project. In collaboration with the museum and other partners, we scanned the fragile remains of the Great Auk using the Artec Spider to create an accurate digital model. This model was then 3D printed and cast in bronze by Black Isle Foundry, culminating in a public unveiling on 26 April.
“Central Scanning is proud to have played a part in such a special project,” the team said. “Helping bring an extinct species back to life in bronze, right where one of the last was lost, is a powerful symbol of remembrance and education.”
The statue now stands atop an egg-shaped dry-stone cairn, near the very place where the final Papa Westray Auk was reportedly shot after a collector placed a bounty on its head.
The Great Auk, once common across both sides of the North Atlantic, was a flightless seabird hunted to extinction by the mid-19th century. Its replica serves as a solemn reminder of that loss—and of humanity’s ongoing impact on wildlife.
The unveiling drew around 40 locals and visitors, including two participants dressed in black and white with Great Auk headpieces. Among those present was Jonathan Ford, Papa Westray’s ranger, who moved to the island in 2005 after becoming fascinated by the story of the Auk.
“I became obsessed with black and white birds,” he said. “Knowing the last breeding pair in the British Isles was killed here—that’s what brought me.”
Ford now leads tours to share the island’s natural history. He credited the Orkney’s North Isles Landscape Partnership with helping fund the statue through six years of community effort. “It’s been a long process, but it’s been worth it,” he said.
Joanne Cooper, senior curator at the Natural History Museum, described seeing the statue as “staggering.”
“To see it so beautifully done, with such rich detail in bronze, was really emotional,” she said. “It’s an honest interpretation—you can see the wear, the missing patches. It’s authentic.”
The original Auk specimen is too fragile for public display and rarely leaves the museum. Thanks to 3D scanning, its likeness is now accessible to all.
As local ornithologists noted during the ceremony, the island’s once-vibrant seabird population has sharply declined. Arctic Tern numbers, for example, have dropped from 15,000 breeding pairs to around 200, with few chicks surviving each season.
Now, the bronze Great Auk stands as both a memorial and a warning—reminding all who visit of nature’s fragility and the enduring consequences of human exploitation. To read the BBC article: