Article about the collecting of Emperor Penguin-eggs for the Natural History Museum :
The worst egg hunt in the world | Henry Nicholls | Science | guardian.co.uk
The worst egg hunt in the world | Henry Nicholls | Science | guardian.co.uk
Collecting Emperor penguin-eggs....in 1911 !
- Thread starter vogelcommando
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This exploit gave Apsley Cherry-Garrard the title for his book about Scott's second expedition The Worst Journey in the World. It is a classic and highly recommended.
Cherry-Garrard and his companions were incredibly lucky to survive this trip as their tent blew away in a blizzard, leaving them in their sleeping bags. Fortunately the storm ended before they froze to death and they were even luckier to recover the tent, almost undamaged.
As the piece says, Wilson and Bowers ran out of luck on the way back from the South Pole. Their bodies were found on either side of Captain Scott's.
It is only fair to add that this was not scientifically useless. It did not provide much positive evidence about the evolution of birds - but no-one knew that until the embryos were examined. Negative evidence which eliminates mistaken hypotheses has great value too.
Alan
Cherry-Garrard and his companions were incredibly lucky to survive this trip as their tent blew away in a blizzard, leaving them in their sleeping bags. Fortunately the storm ended before they froze to death and they were even luckier to recover the tent, almost undamaged.
As the piece says, Wilson and Bowers ran out of luck on the way back from the South Pole. Their bodies were found on either side of Captain Scott's.
It is only fair to add that this was not scientifically useless. It did not provide much positive evidence about the evolution of birds - but no-one knew that until the embryos were examined. Negative evidence which eliminates mistaken hypotheses has great value too.
Alan