The megapode egg hunters of Matupit Island
One of the most bizarre creatures in the Pacific lives on the island of New Britain off the coast of Papua New Guinea: the megapode (Megapodius eremita) is unique in the bird world because it does not incubate its eggs using its own body temperature, but has developed a different brood technique. The animals dig holes up to three meters deep in the flanks of the Tavurvur volcano, one of the most active volcanoes on the planet. The holes are exactly so deep that the sand has a temperature of 33 degrees. There the chicken lays its eggs and covers them with sand. Then the volcano takes over.
For generations, the collectors of the Tolai people have been digging out the eggs from the volcanic sand because they are considered a delicacy – an extremely dangerous job in which collectors are repeatedly killed because they are buried by the volcanic sand. At dawn they row to the volcano. Every egg collector has his own territory. If a collector finds 12 or 15 eggs, the latter is a good daily yield. On their way home the egg hunters boil the eggs in the hot springs at the foot of the volcano in order to preserve them.
The eggs are little more than twice the size of chicken eggs and consist almost entirely of yolk. They are one of the most important source of protein. The eggs that the egg hunters, which exclusively come from the Matupit peninsula at the foot of the volcano, do not need themselves, are sold at the Raubaul and Kokopo markets.
Since the Tavurvur erupted in 1994 and the town of Rabaul, which is only four kilometers away, has been buried under a six-meter-thick layer of ash, the volcano has been active almost continuously. The result: hot lava rock, sand and ash have destroyed a large part of the vegetation around the volcano. That means that the animals find no protection from predators, the tropical heat and also not from the egg collectors. That‘s why the Tolai have strict rules: The animals themselves must never be hunted. Anyone who does so will be severely punished from the community. Each collector is also only assigned to certain holes where he is allowed to dig.
