Extract from ABC News
Christian Robertson spends his days trekking along the rugged coastlines of King Island in search of washed-up gems.
Key points:
- A British scientist has published his findings on the discovery of a rare King Island emu egg
- Little is known about the emu sub-species after it became extinct about 200 years ago
- The egg of the dwarf emu is the same size as a mainland bird, despite it being significantly smaller
The avid beachcomber and local historian is always on the hunt for extraordinary objects, hidden beneath the sand and kelp of Tasmania's northernmost island.
"You never know what pops up on beaches after storms, even inland. If you're into bones, even bits of shipwreck stuff, you just never know," Mr Robertson said.
"I'm always interested in the history of the island and also just finding strange objects on the beach."
It
was one day when he was searching for bones in a sand dune, Mr
Robertson made his greatest discovery yet — a rare egg from an extinct
emu.
"I spent most of that time picking up hundreds of bits of pieces of emu egg shell.
"I was quite happy because I know none exist, but I was well aware of them. I've known about them for long enough," he said.
The King Island dwarf emu was the smallest emu in the world at about 1.2 metres tall and hunted to extinction within a few decades of colonial settlement in Tasmania.
Mr Robertson attempted to reassemble the egg himself using super glue.
"Probably not done properly but there's not much you can do out here, we're pretty well isolated."
'I nearly fell over backward'
The discovery remained somewhat of a secret until leading avian palaeontologist Julian Hume, from the Natural History Museum in London, visited the island to research the extinct bird.
Dr Hume — who studies island extinctions and has consulted on projects with David Attenborough — met with Mr Robertson, who showed him his collection of bones.
"He said to me, just casually, 'you might be interested in this, what I've put together,' and it was this King Island emu egg, the only one known in the world and I nearly fell over backward," Dr Hume said.
"I suddenly thought, 'blimey, these dwarf emus were laying the same sized eggs as the mainland bird'," Mr Hume said.
The discovery is an important piece of the puzzle in understanding the animals and how they coped with the island's cold climate, foraged for food, and fended off predators.
"Those factors
combined forced the emu to retain a large egg size so it was able to
produce large chicks that had a much better chance of survival," Mr Hume
said.
It is believed that sealers contributed to the extinction of the bird, with one boasting he had personally eaten 300 emus while on the island for nine months.
"Because there was nothing else to eat, he was eating these emus while he was there," Mr Hume said,
'There could be more out there'
Dr Hume and Mr Robertson's research was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Biology Letters.
Since the discovery became public, others have come forward with their own miniature emu eggs.
Mayor of King Island, Julie Arnold, said it was an "outstanding discovery" that shone a light onto the history of animals on the island.
"There are always hidden gems," Ms Arnold said. "You can walk some of our coasts and pick up pieces of coal that were the bunker fuel for some of the ships.
"I know people who have found messages in bottles and that's just on our coasts."
While Mr Robertson hopes his discovery can help researchers around the world learn more about the dwarf emu, he wants the egg to stay on the island where it belongs.
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