Why don't people eat ostrich eggs?

(phone rings) - Hi, I'm Doug. I have the

ostrich

egg here in my hands. This is the real egg with the yolk inside and everything. Just for comparison, here's an egg you may be more familiar with: a chicken egg. Now, if we were to open this

ostrich

egg, how much yolk do you think is inside? What size tortilla could we make? Well, maybe you'll find out today. Someone named Connor has a question about

eggs

. Let's call him now. (phone rings) - Hello Doug. - Hello Connor! - I have a question for you. Why don't

people

eat ostrich

eggs

? - Oh, that's a great question.

Ostriches lay the largest eggs in the world. It seems like it would make a lot of sense to eat ostrich eggs instead of chicken eggs. Now, you might be thinking, “Wait a second.” "Wouldn't an ostrich egg have a baby ostrich inside?" The answer is not necessarily. Chicken eggs work the same way. An egg could definitely have a chick. growing inside if the egg has been fertilized by a rooster, a male chicken. But as long as the roosters stay away, the hens will lay eggs that only contain yolk. The same goes for an ostrich. In fact, there are even some places in the United States where farmers keep ostriches on their farms just to collect eggs from the females that lay them.

A few years ago, I bought one of these ostrich eggs from an ostrich farm. I wanted to celebrate the fact that the company I work for, Mystery, had grown to 10

people

. I thought, how fun it would be to have a big breakfast with everyone at Mystery, only instead of making eggs with a bunch of chicken. eggs, I use one big egg, an ostrich egg, to feed everyone. Well, I went to open the ostrich egg and that's when I discovered a reason why ostrich eggs are probably not that popular. It turns out that the shell of an ostrich egg is very thick, much thicker than that of a chicken egg.

It's so thick and so sturdy that to open one you have to use a drill like you see this guy here doing. But, once you open it, there is a lot of yolk inside. A single ostrich egg contains approximately the same amount of yolk as 25 chicken eggs. That means if you cracked open an ostrich egg, you could make an omelette big enough to feed 12 people. Just one egg. I made one that day at Mystery, we definitely all had enough food to go around. Every time I tell this story, many people ask me, "What did it taste like?" Honestly, I don't think you can tell any difference in taste between ostrich egg and chicken egg.

Well, ostrich eggs are huge but quite difficult to open. Most people don't want to start their day having to pull out a drill to make breakfast. But what other types of eggs have people tried eating before? Ostriches are the largest bird in the world, so it's no surprise that their eggs are the largest of any animal on Earth. But that hasn't always been true. There once were birds even larger than ostriches, like this so-called elephant bird. He lived on the island of Madagascar. Unfortunately, elephant birds became extinct. There is not a single one of them left on earth.

Scientists believe it was probably because they were all hunted by people. But all this only happened in the last thousand years. They didn't go extinct millions of years ago like the dinosaurs did, which means people have been able to find some examples of real elephant bird eggs that still exist. Eggs that never hatched. Are you ready for this? These are not fossils that turned to stone. These are real eggs. If the elephant bird were still alive, it would hold the record for having the largest eggs laid by any animal on earth. If you think an ostrich egg is big, check out this side-by-side comparison of an elephant bird egg to an ostrich egg.

Now remember, I told you that one ostrich egg is equivalent to about 25 chicken eggs. How many chicken eggs do you think a single elephant bird egg would be equivalent to? You might find it fun to pause the video and guess. Okay, are you ready? While no one has ever eaten an elephant bird egg, based on its size alone, we can assume that one elephant bird egg would be equivalent to 125 chicken eggs. With that, you could make a tortilla the size of a couch. And probably a thousand years ago, people living in Madagascar could have eaten them for breakfast.

But even today, people all over the world eat eggs of different types of birds. It's not just about chickens and ostriches. Some people also eat duck and goose eggs. They are said to have a different flavor than chicken eggs, more abundant and with a creamier flavor. Emus are a smaller Australian cousin of the ostrich and more and more farmers are keeping emus around as emu eggs could become popular. Look these. Emus lay one of the most colorful and beautiful types of eggs in the world. And it's not just birds that lay eggs. Here are some eggs you may have eaten and didn't even know you were eating them.

Have you ever had sushi before? That's a Japanese food. On some sushi rolls, you can order them with this thing, called masago, these little orange-pink things that go on almost like a topping. Each one of those little things is actually the egg of a small ocean fish. Many people around the world eat fish eggs. Unlike the eggs of birds and reptiles, fish eggs do not have a shell and are usually quite small, which is why they are often used as a seasoning for food. So, in short, ostriches lay the largest egg of any animal on earth.

And people eat ostrich eggs, but most find it easier to deal with chicken eggs. Many animals lay eggs, not just birds. And people eat all kinds of these. That's all for this week's question. Thanks, Connor, for asking. Now, for the next episode, I dug into my question jar and selected three Thanksgiving-related questions that were sent to me that I'm thinking about answering next. When this video finishes playing, you can vote for one. You can choose between: What is a cornucopia? Why is it called Thanksgiving? Or why do people eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day? So cast your vote when the video ends.

I want to hear from everyone watching. There are mysteries around us. Stay curious and see you next week.