Watch young David Attenborough attempt to piece together a massive broken eggshell that was given to him by locals. This rare video is a 1961 clip, titled The Elephant Bird Egg, is from Zoo Quest to Madagascar.
Attenborough uses the puzzle-like egg to discuss The Elephant Bird, an ostrich or emu-like flightless bird that lived on the island of Madagascar until its extinction, likely in the 17th or 18th century. How tall was it? From Wikipedia:
Aepyornis, believed to have been more than 3 m (10 ft) tall and weighing close to 400 kg (880 lb), was at the time the world’s largest bird. Remains of Aepyornis adults and eggs have been found; in some cases the eggs have a circumference of more than 1 m (3 ft 3 in) and a length up to 34 cm (13 in). The egg volume is about 160 times greater than that of a chicken egg.
Below, Sir David visits the Elephant Bird’s skeleton in a museum in the capital city of Antananarivo:
Watch these related videos next:
• David Attenborough on Spiders, Mortality, and Nature’s Resilience
• Giant prehistoric penguins + how penguins moved from sky to sea
• Why don’t birds lay ‘square’ eggs?
• Saving the Island Fox
• The Kakapo: The world’s only flightless parrot is a very rare bird
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