For the past week I was visiting family back in the Midwest. Last Saturday I had the pleasure of having dinner with my nephew Russ, his wife Erin and their two children Ethan and Nova. My dad, sister and brother-in-law were also there. Dinner was at a nice brew pub and the food was good. As usual there was lively conversation around the table.
I was sitting next to Ethan. I knew Ethan was very interested in animals from past encounters so I was expecting to talk to him about our latest trip to Africa. Even though Ethan is a bit on the quiet side he peppered me with questions about our safari. My sister had already warned me that he is very smart and usually right when he says something.
At some point Ethan asked me if I knew what a guineafowl was. I immediately launched into a description of the helmeted guineafowls that I had seen in Kenya and South Africa. What I didn’t know was that Ethan’s family raises domestic guineafowl. It wasn’t long before he was asking questions that I didn’t know the answers to. But of course he did…
Ethan then told me that guinea eggs were very tough and that he had even dropped one on concrete and it didn’t break. I had no reason to disbelieve him but I also thought it might just be the exaggeration of a 9-year-old. The rest of the meal continued in a pleasant fashion until we had to go our separate ways.
When I got home I decided, out of curiosity, to check Ethan’s claim of guinea egg durability. I Googled “helmeted guineafowl” and found an entry in Wikipedia that said “Domestic birds at least, are notable for producing extremely thick-shelled eggs.” This appeared to support Ethan’s claim, however, Wikipedia is not really the most reliable source around. I continued to search but mostly found a bunch of YouTube videos of questionable veracity. So I kept digging until I found this:
So there it was. Ethan’s claim was substantiated by the journal of British Poultry Science!
Why am I writing about this? With his sharp mind and strong interest in animals Ethan would make an excellent Naturalist (among other things) someday. So this posting is to applaud all of the young people out there who are interested in science, wildlife and the environment. Our world needs people like them. Let’s encourage their interest so that our future will be brighter.
One World 