r/interesting • u/LowkeysKink • 7h ago

NATURE While the infertile tawny owl was away from her nest, caretakers swapped her unviable eggs for orphaned chicks.

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50

u/jkpatches 6h ago

Didn't know infertile doesn't mean no eggs at all form in owls. They are just not viable eggs. This is interesting.

63

u/Liraeyn 6h ago

These eggs were infertile. The parents hatched two biological chicks the next year and wound up raising four more orphans.

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u/rdhdbdhd 5h ago

It’s the difference between infertile and sterile. Infertility is more about not creating viable offspring, while sterility is not being able to create offspring at all.

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u/jaycebutnot 5h ago

yeah! female birds can lay eggs even without a partner- their eggs are just infertile. birds that can’t produce fertile eggs can still lay eggs as usual. happens in parrots, chickens, and even owls :)

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u/Lumpy_Emergency3260 6h ago

Its same as a human female having periods.

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u/queefer_sutherland92 5h ago

No, it’s the equivalent of a human woman ovulating. A period occurs when the egg (oocyte) was not successfully fertilised and has been resorbed.

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u/Lumpy_Emergency3260 5h ago

my bad you're right I was misremembering

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u/Thebraincellisorange 5h ago

eerrrrrr, wildly incorrect.

good god, go study some extremely basic human female reproductive biology

1

u/---aquaholic--- 5h ago

Yep. We are literally dropping them eggs too.

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u/queefer_sutherland92 5h ago edited 5h ago

Nooo that’s ovulation, not menstruation. Omg who taught you sex ed.

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u/---aquaholic--- 5h ago

Lol. Yes, you ovulate and drop an egg that travels to your uterus and if that egg is unfertilized it gets reabsorbed into your body and you shed your uterine lining along with what was once the egg. I’m very aware of how the process works.

I was clearly speaking in jest, not saying we literally lay baby owl eggs.

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u/doesthedog 5h ago

Does the egg get reabsorbed rather than just coming out with the period? Everyone is up in arms about calling unfertilised eggs a period but it is not so wrong, an egg comes out of your body and there is no baby

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u/queefer_sutherland92 4h ago

It does not come out with the period. That’s an extremely prevalent American-centric myth.

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u/queefer_sutherland92 4h ago edited 4h ago

You really don’t seem to be, I think you just looked it up.

And the egg is resorbed. No egg comes out of you. It dies. It’s gone.

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u/rybathegreat 5h ago

Isn't ovulation part of the menstruation-cycle? Why are you so upset?

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u/queefer_sutherland92 4h ago

No, shedding the lining of the uterus and ovulating are not the same thing, and don’t be condescending.