Unidentified Egg Found in Backyard
It was business as usual as I toured the animal grounds today when this yellow, yolk-filled gem caught my eye lying discretely in the shade of a nearby tree. It looked like an egg and acted like an egg, so of course I presumed it was an egg, but it was an egg unlike any I had ever seen. This was not your garden-variety chicken or duck egg. I mean, it was big enough to fit an entire adult human head. Actually, it wouldn’t have surprised me if a baby brontosaurus came bumbling out of it at any moment. It was so huge that–well, seeing as I’ve provided an image, I suppose it is less effective to exaggerate its incredible voluminosity. However, as you can tell, it is one big egg (and the ones that follow this one, I’m sure, will only get bigger).
After concluding that it couldn’t have come from a duck, a chicken, a mutant chicken, a reptile, an amphibian, a dinosaur, or any other animal, I started to suspect the egg might belong to the rhea family. This suspicion was largely confirmed by the egg’s location within the confines of the rhea pen, the size of these two large birds (Mama Rhea and Papa Rhea, respectively), and the two rheas’ presence at the scene of the discovery.
As Papa Rhea cannot lay eggs and no other similar eggs have been uncovered in the area, I can only assume that the egg in question is the first Mama Rhea’s ever laid in her lifetime. If this is the case, it is likely that we will find other eggs like it in this vicinity as the season progresses.
Congratulations, Mama Rhea!