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Attenborough And the Giant Egg

Galvasean · 2011-03-22 21:56:45

This documentary was shown on BBC on Wednesday night. i only caught a bit of it myself (darn work), but from the write ups I've read it sounded like a very good watch, intermingling footage shot recently with old stock footage of Attenborough when he visited Madagascar 50 years ago. Basically the goal of the documentary…

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22-03-2011 10:56pm

#1

Galvasean

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This documentary was shown on BBC on Wednesday night. i only caught a bit of it myself (darn work), but from the write ups I've read it sounded like a very good watch, intermingling footage shot recently with old stock footage of Attenborough when he visited Madagascar 50 years ago.
Basically the goal of the documentary was to investigate what caused the demise of the giant elephant bird (Aepyornis maximus. He came to this conclusion:

David Attenborough wrote:

"I doubt it was hunted to extinction – anyone who has seen an ostrich in a zoo knows that it has a kick which can open a man's stomach and an enraged elephant bird, many times the size of an ostrich, must have been a truly formidable opponent.

"I suspect it was its egg. They may not have been able to tackle an adult bird, but they could have taken its eggs which would have been a huge source of food.

"Even if the bird itself was held in awe or fear by the people here, it's unlikely the eggs were – and that would have meant the gradual disappearance of this unique giant."

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