The Elephant Bird

We’ve all read stories about a giant bird that terrorized Sinbad the Sailor. It was even mentioned in the travelogues of that great explorer, Marco Polo. Sinbad’s was an exaggerated account of a bird that was known as Elephant Bird, or Vouron Patra (Aepyornis maximus). There is debate on whether it was the largest bird that ever lived because it receives stiff competition from the Moa. There was controversy regarding the veracity of the existence of such a bird but early Arabian and Indian explorers from Africa brought back with them tales of eggs that were three feet in circumference. These eggs that the Elephant Bird laid were larger than the largest dinosaur eggs found.

The habitat of the Elephant Bird was the island of Madagascar, off the eastern coast of Africa. The island was first populated by African and Indonesian peoples that are thought to have arrived around the time of Christ, about 2000 years ago. The first Europeans to visit the island were the Portuguese in 1500, but it was only in 1642 when the French settled there on a permanent basis. The presence of the bird was first documented by the first French Governor when he described as ostrich-like and having the tendency to lay eggs in lonely places. In fact, it was named Vouron Patra (marsh bird) by the French. The reasons for their extinction are not very clear. But one of the causes has to be the animosity between the French settlers and the native tribes. The native’s scriptures often portray the Elephant Bird as a shy, peaceful giant. But they probably raided their nests often enough to cause a complete breakdown in the food chain. The eggs and egg shells were both very important items to the native tribes, who used them for food and ornaments.

The Elephant bird is a flightless bird of the family Aepyornithidae. They may have survived until as late as 1649. Today, they are known only from bone specimens and a few well-preserved eggs. The largest amongst them would reach heights of 10 ft (305 cm) and weighing as much as 1,000 lb (455 kg). Their eggs, the largest single cells in the animal kingdom, measured up to 13 in. (33 cm) in length and held a liquid content estimated at two gallons (7.5 liters). Voroun patra was a ratite, a bird which could not fly because its breast bone had no keel. This "keel" serves to anchor the strong musculature other birds need for powered flight. Other ratites include ostrich, emu, cassowary, kiwi, rhea and the extinct Moa. Flightless birds evolved early in the Cenozoic Era, when predators such as the dinosaurs disappeared. Other ratites are still found throughout the southern hemisphere; this circumstance gave rise to the "traditional" theory that these birds originated on the former continent of Gondwana.

Elephant birds are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order epyornithiformes, family Aepyornithidae. Fossil records show that the Vouron Patra was not the only species of Aepyornis that ever lived. It is thought that between three and seven different types of Elephant Bird have lived since the Pleistocene. But only the smaller Aepyornis mullerornis is thought to have survived along with the Elephant Bird. The evidence found in terms of fossils and eggs is not enough to make many concrete claims about the bird. It is mostly fragments of eggs that are found. The feet of the Elephant Bird indicate that it was more suited to stomping through dense forests as compared to the gypsy like lifestyle of the ostrich. Its fossils are found in peat deposits along the coast of Madagascar, occasionally in conjunction with hippopotamus bones.

It received worldwide publicity when H.G. Wells, who originally was trained as an anatomist under T. H. Huxley, wrote about it in his highly acclaimed short story "Aepyornis Island". The elephant bird was in the news again because of the discovery of some intact eggs in the year 2000 in the collection of eggs of a very prominent institution.