# Elephant Bird Egg up for Auction

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-bird-egg-up-for-auction/718741>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 28, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-bird-egg-up-for-auction/718741 "2015-04-28T19:43:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-bird-egg-up-for-auction/718741/1 "2015-04-28T19:43:05Z")

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I didn’t even know there were any _Aepyornis_ eggs left intact

> **[Rare elephant bird egg could fetch more than $70,000 at auction](https://www.yahoo.com/news/rare-elephant-bird-egg-could-fetch-more-70-160207795.html)**
>
> Believed to be more than 400 years old and nearly 200 times the size of a chicken egg, an extremely rare elephant bird egg will be auctioned in London this week, with an estimated price tag of up to $76,000. The egg, over 30 centimeters (11.81...

> [@](#):
>
> LONDON (Reuters) - Believed to be more than 400 years old and nearly 200 times the size of a chicken egg, an extremely rare elephant bird egg will be auctioned in London this week, with an estimated price tag of up to $76,000.
> 
> The egg, over 30 centimeters (11.81 inches) high, was laid by the now extinct elephant bird, a giant flightless bird indigenous to Madagascar, according to auction house Sotheby’s.

Anyone considering buying it ought to read H.G. wells’ story _Aepyornis Island_ first

> **[Classic Reader | Ponly](https://ponly.com/hobbies/classic-reader/)**
>
> Classic Reader has now merged with Ponly.

> **[Æpyornis Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86pyornis_Island)**
>
> "Æpyornis Island", or "Aepyornis Island", is a short story by H. G. Wells, first published in 1894 in the Pall Mall Budget. It was included in The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents, the first collection of short stories by Wells, first published in 1895.
> In the story, a man looking for eggs of Aepyornis, an extinct flightless bird, passes two years alone on a small island with an Aepyornis that has hatched.
> Aepyornis maximus (the giant elephant-bird) was a giant flightless bird that lived in ...

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**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-bird-egg-up-for-auction/718741/2 "2015-04-28T19:53:27Z")

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My Dad already has a reconstructed one (probably from several eggs, there’s notable colour variance). I shan’t tempt him.

My mother was OK with him spending the whole of the final day’s money for their first Madagascar trip on it, so they had to not eat dinner and walk to the airport rather than get a taxi, but I think she may draw the line there…