Today I saw an elephant egg
Posted: 06 Aug 2014, 11:41I went again to the Bird exhibition at Norwich Castle.
The egg is huge and I have never heard of the bird or the egg.
So I looked it up for you.
Elephant birds
Madagascar's giant, flightless elephant birds were once a common sight on the island, certainly up until the 17th century. It is generally believed that the elephant bird's extinction resulted from human activity, perhaps not surprising when one of their giant eggs would have fed an entire family. Sir David Attenborough pieced fragments of one of the eggs together for the 1960's series Zoo Quest, which you can see in the video clip below. At over 3m tall, the largest elephant birds competed in size with New Zealand's moas, though at a hefty half tonne they were certainly heavier.
Scientific name: Aepyornithidae
Rank: Family
Common names:
Aepyornis,
Vorompatra,
Vouron patra
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Elephant_bird
The egg is huge and I have never heard of the bird or the egg.
So I looked it up for you.
Elephant birds
Madagascar's giant, flightless elephant birds were once a common sight on the island, certainly up until the 17th century. It is generally believed that the elephant bird's extinction resulted from human activity, perhaps not surprising when one of their giant eggs would have fed an entire family. Sir David Attenborough pieced fragments of one of the eggs together for the 1960's series Zoo Quest, which you can see in the video clip below. At over 3m tall, the largest elephant birds competed in size with New Zealand's moas, though at a hefty half tonne they were certainly heavier.
Scientific name: Aepyornithidae
Rank: Family
Common names:
Aepyornis,
Vorompatra,
Vouron patra
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Elephant_bird