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Australian Zoo celebrates its first cassowary egg since 1992, featuring a bright green shell made for survival
The cassowary egg gets its fluorescent green colour from a pigment, biliverdin.
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A rare, bright green Southern cassowary egg has ended a 34-year drought at Australia's Adelaide Zoo. Glowing like a neon jewel, its striking fluorescent shade stems from the natural pigment biliverdin.
The zoo and the egg:
The first cassowary chick hatched at Adelaide Zoo in 1968, and six more chicks were born in 1992. However, after that, there were no eggs from this large, flightless bird, and the drought continued for 34 years. Until Team Supervisor Birds and Free Flight, Erin, discovered the first egg. The egg belongs to 10-year-old Southern cassowary Martina and 13-year-old male cassowary Jeffrey, who were paired up by the zoo.
“This is really exciting news for us because it has been 34 years since we’ve had successful cassowary chicks here at Adelaide Zoo, so the team and myself included are very excited,” Erin said in a statement released by the zoo.
The zoo official added, “Martina and Jeffrey have only been paired since August this year, and this is the first time they’ve ever been put together.”
How did the zoo pair the birds?
“We were looking for things like vocalisations – a low rumble or boom call – and whether they were more tolerant of eating near each other,” said Erin in a statement, adding, “We removed parts of the shade cloth between them and put their food alongside each other at the fence line so we could watch how comfortable they were around one another.”
It was Jeffrey who approached Martina, and they mated on the day they were paired.
Why are cassowary eggs bright green?
The eggs are big and bright green coloured due to the presence of a pigment called biliverdin, which is often found in bird shells.
“The egg is actually fluorescent green – it’s a really bright green colour,” Erin said.
“That colour comes from pigment in the shell and helps camouflage the egg. In the wild, cassowaries live in dense rainforest and will find a safe area amongst the leaves to lay, so that green helps keep the eggs hidden from predators.”
According to a report by IFL Science, the eggs can weigh about 580 grams, which is about the weight of 10 normal chicken eggs.
About cassowaries:
They are the third-largest birds in the world after ostriches and emus. There are three species of the bird: the northern (Casuarius unappendiculatus), southern (Casuarius casuarius), and dwarf (Casuarius bennetti) cassowaries.
What is interesting is that once the female cassowaries lay eggs, they almost don’t have anything to do with them. Instead, it is the male birds that take over the incubation and also raise the chicks.
