NEW VIDEO: Youtubers Try to Guess a MYSTERY EGG I Found in My Yard


I found a mysterious egg in my yard and I couldn’t figure out what animal it was. I wanted to add it to my giant rainforest vivarium, but before doing that I needed to seek the help of some animal experts to help me identify the egg. Their analysis was interesting, to say the least! Big thank you to Tyler Nolan, Jay Brewer of Prehistoric Pets, Clint’s Reptiles, Dingo Dinkelman, and Coyote Peterson of Brave Wilderness for the help!

 

Youtubers Try to Guess a MYSTERY EGG I Found in My Yard

I found this mysterious egg in my yard behind my chicken coop, and its appearance shocked us all. It was by itself on the ground. But this was no chicken egg.

“Hello, my precious beast. Rest well.”

I needed to have it identified because if it was what I thought it was, I had some pretty epic plans. I wanted to add whatever was inside into my 1000-gallon cloud rainforest vivarium, called Pandora, full of interdependent plants, fungi, and animals. To get some answers, I showed this egg to some friends of mine, who I knew could help with identifying it. But little did I know, solving the mystery of this egg would lead me down the craziest rabbit hole—or rather, reptile hole!

Welcome to the story of the mystery egg going into my giant rainforest vivarium here on the AntsCanada Ant Channel.

Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy!

I stared into the container at the strange, over 3-inch-long egg, wondering what on Earth could possibly be lying inside. It was definitely not a bird, as it had a soft, leathery shell. It was undeniably reptilian in origin. But what was it doing behind my chicken coop? Was it even fertilized? Was it still alive?

I had so many questions about it. It could possibly make an incredible addition to our rainforest! But guys, the feedback I got from my expert friends was surprising!

But first, what do you guys think it is? Before I tell you what I think and hope this egg is, let’s go over some of the clues.

Although my name is AntsCanada, about 13 years ago, I left my home in Canada and all I knew behind to start a new life on the other side of the world, in the tropics of Southeast Asia. Today, I live here, in the middle of a jungle, in a private home built for my ants and various rescued and adopted animals.

And guys, I’ve come to realize over the years that living here in the tropics was no game. Creatures in every corner, emerging from unknown places, yearly termite nuptial flights, typhoons, extreme summer heat, bats drinking from my pool at dawn, and probably the most dominant of all: reptiles, reptiles, reptiles galore!

While I grew up with raccoons, squirrels, the odd deer, and skunks wandering onto my property back in Toronto, here, where I live now, reptiles are the kings of the jungle.

Now, for the most part, the largest reptiles choose to stay away from humans, but sometimes, they’ll have the courage to wander close, especially when we have something they’re looking for.

So, since moving out here, I’ve been obsessed with permaculture, a type of sustainable approach to living and farming using principles of a healthy ecosystem. One of my coolest projects has been building what’s called a “food forest,” where I’ve taken full advantage of the dense tropical forest in my yard to grow various fruits and vegetables in and near it, seeing as the jungle creates the best, most nutrient-rich soil. The produce in my food forest has been insane. Check out how many plantain bananas my team and I harvested this week from a single stem, and all the papaya on its way from this tree.

And here’s my carpet of never-ending sweet potatoes. The high nutrient content of the jungle soil makes the fruits and veggies so nutrient-dense that my various vegetarian animals, like my goats and this colony of iguanas, don’t need any extra vitamin supplements for vitality. They get everything they need from the jungle-grown herbs, veggies, and fruits.

But a special team of animals helps me with the food forest, like these native stingless bees—yes, bees that lack a stinger—whose purpose is to help with pollination of the crops. Also, a helpful team of goats and chickens assist in producing fertilizer and controlling the weeds.

Now, I adore our chickens and goats, but I’ve begun to notice more and more that their presence has been luring the larger predators out of the jungle. When I found this egg behind the chicken coop, I realized that the reptiles were indeed coming around, and whatever reptile laid the egg was big!

So, here’s what I suspect this egg could be.

Reticulated pythons: Like all pythons, these snakes are non-venomous constrictors, meaning they squeeze their prey to death before swallowing. In very rare cases, humans have been killed by retics and in at least six reported cases, eaten. Check out this huge one that was captured by a friend of mine that had eaten an entire goat! These snakes are no joke.

But thankfully, I’ve only spotted one juvenile on my property over the past two years. This small retic was just gorgeous, and at this size, they eat sun skinks, small mice and birds, and possibly amphibians. Could you imagine this small snake living in our rainforest for several months? They are essential to the ecosystem, being apex predators as adults. But there was just one thing: These snakes usually lay their eggs in clutches, with the mother usually coiled around them to warm and protect them during incubation. The fact that this was a sole egg with no mother anywhere in sight guarding it made me suspect it might not be a reticulated python egg. AC Family, there was another possibility.

Asian water monitors are crazy beasts, also native to where I live. It is widely considered to be the second-largest lizard species, after the Komodo dragon, growing up to six feet in length. They are obligate carnivores and are also apex predators in the ecosystem as adults. They get their name from their semi-aquatic lifestyle, spending a lot of time in water, and are probably drawn to my pool, the giant pond in my yard, as well as my chickens and their chicks. My team and I sometimes find juveniles on the property, though I do know that adults are lurking around inside the jungle.

But the reason I suspect the egg could be a water monitor egg is because of this. Looking back at the footage, I noticed a sort of hill where I found the egg. And going back to inspect the hill, it wasn’t long before I realized that this dome-shaped hill was huge. From it were growing Termitomyces mushrooms! This was a Macrotermes termite mound, i.e., a nest of fungus-growing termites, as featured in previous episodes on this channel.

The fact that the egg was found at the foot of this termite mound was a big clue because the locality of water monitors where I am from has a commensalistic relationship with these fungus-growing termites! You see, a pregnant Asian water monitor will seek out one of these termite mounds and dig a hole deep into the mound, then lay its eggs into the termite mound. After the mother leaves, the termites seal the hole back up, and the eggs are perfectly incubated within the termite nest, which is optimally climate controlled by the termites in order to grow their fungus.

So, could it be that this egg was laid inside the huge termite mound, and with my chickens scratching around the mound for soil insects and tasty termites, it was exposed to the surface where we found it? This seemed like a much more likely scenario, and so Asian water monitor was my guess.

I also hoped it was because the idea of a really large reticulated python nearby was pretty terrifying. There was actually a third possibility in my mind as to what this egg could be, and it was the most terrifying of all…

So, I also live in cobra country. Two notorious and highly dangerous species of cobras can be found in my area: the Philippine cobra, which is the most common, and the King Cobra.

In fact, my team and I spotted a baby cobra exactly a year ago right outside of my home trying to find a way inside! See it flattening out its hood? Now, this was a highly dangerous creature even at this size. I believed this specimen to be a Philippine cobra, considered one of the deadliest snakes in the world. A bite from these snakes has killed as many as 300 people per year in the country, mostly farmers from remote areas with difficulty receiving immediate medical attention. Though this baby was pretty non-aggressive, we still made sure to release this little one as far away in the jungle as possible.

What makes this snake even more dangerous is its unique ability to project venom by “spitting” at its enemies, aimed at the eyes, when they feel threatened.

Could this egg be a cobra egg?

It was time to reach out to some experts to get some answers. I took a couple of pictures of the egg and sent them to several animal friends of mine. I couldn’t wait to hear back from them, but little did I know, the truth about this egg was not as straightforward as I thought it might be.

Later that night, I visited Pandora. It was quiet and still in our rainforest. Geckoes were hanging out in the shadows, emerging for the hunt. A carpenter ant was foraging the asparagus ferns. Watching the ants meticulously licking the leaves of nutritious honeydew produced by the colonies of mealybugs was now such a common sight in our rainforest. The roaches also came out to play. A tiny frog had come out of hiding to greet the night air and begin searching for ants, termites, and baby crickets to eat. Godzilla, our resident juvenile caiman, lay in ambush in the blackwater pond, waiting for creatures to come close to the water’s edge or fall in. He was so much bigger now than he was when he first moved in earlier this year. It was a bit sad to know, as per the rules of this project, that his time in Pandora might be coming to an end if we decided to add in a new apex predator, but he would be moving to an even cooler and larger space after this, but no hints as to where—and you’ll just have to follow the series to see.

But it was then that I began to meditate on the direction of our ever-changing rainforest within glass. I began to wonder how things would change with a new apex predator in here if the egg hatched, and it turned out to be some incredible snake. I would need to add in some mammals at some point, perhaps arboreal African dormice to live in the trees in Orchadia, the canopy vivarium attached on the floor above. Or, if a baby water monitor were to hatch from the egg, how it would pretty much eat everything it could find: prey insects, Snip, geckoes, frogs, etc. Not gonna even go there if a cobra hatches from the egg.

But as cool as predation and predators are to watch in an ecosystem, I’ve been very careful about what predators to add into our rainforest because adding the wrong one could completely throw off the balance, for instance, if they prey on too many creatures quicker than they’re able to reproduce.

Also, it’s been quite a struggle ethically speaking, having to choose what creatures inevitably get to fall under the “prey” category. This project has been a constant tiptoe around the ethics of the animals involved. I do have other predators that I have been thinking of one day introducing to our rainforest, but I’m taking my time with deciding to assess ideal timing for their introduction and the impact they could have on the forest ecosystem.

Cycling through carefully selected predators has, so far, proven to be the best way to learn about ecosystem dynamics and how ecosystems change with every new predator entering the forest space. It’s amazing that so many predators exist where I live, and it was a good sign that the jungle outside my home was prospering. I could only hope for this with Pandora, that our rainforest ecosystem remained alive and healthy as we cycled through new apex predators.

I couldn’t wait to hear from the experts as to what was developing inside this egg.

The next day, I had a phone full of video responses from my reptile friends. Here’s what they had to say about the egg.

First, Tyler Nolan from Florida, who not only owns cobras but is extremely knowledgeable on their breeding habits.

“Hey, what’s up, Mikey, yeah that does look like it’s shaped like a cobra egg. Have you candled it yet? It definitely looks like a good egg, it just looks a little on the dehydrated side, so whatever you have it in, maybe you want to bump the humidity up in that, and then you’ll actually see that little indentation from the dehydration fill back out once it’s properly hydrated. But I’d definitely give it a shot. That would be a really neat project. I feel like everybody would find that pretty fun to watch, and maybe there’s a little tiny cobra in there. Who knows?”

Oh man! A cobra?! If a cobra hatched from this egg, I definitely wouldn’t be keeping it, but I made sure to prepare a much more humid container for the egg so it could rehydrate as per his advice. I also needed to candle it so I could see inside, but before that, the next message came from my buddy Jay Brewer, most notably known as Jay Prehistoric Pets, who runs a store and facility in Orange County with a ton of gorgeous and rare-colored reticulated pythons and monitors. #LivingTheDream

“OK, Mikey, that’s pretty cool you found that egg behind your house, but I would have to say that if you asked me if it was a retic or a water monitor… I’m sure it was an Asian Water Monitor. Because it’s very slender, long, and a little bit narrow on both ends, but I’m not so sure it’s a good one. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if it’s fertile. Hopefully, you’re gonna try to hatch it, and I’ll see you at Animal Con. You’re going, right?”

Yes, Jay, I’ll be at AnimalCon in Orlando, Florida, this Oct 4-6, talking on the main stage about vivariums and having a meet & greet as well, so I hope to see you guys there, too! But anyway, Jay thinks it’s a water monitor? Interesting. Also interesting that he felt the egg may be dead or not fertilized! Hmmm… The mystery continues.

But one of the most surprising responses was from my zoologist friend Clint of Clint’s Reptiles, who had an unexpected egg identification!

“Well hi there, AntsCanada! That is a rad egg that you found there. Sorry, I’m in a bit of a mess at the moment. We are doing some pretty major construction projects here in Clint’s Reptile Room in preparation for our five-year birthday bash here in a few days, but I wanna throw out a kind of an outside-the-box guess as to what I think that egg could be, and my guess, I couldn’t quite tell how big it was, but it didn’t quite look the shape of a retic egg and like big enough to me to be something like an Asian water monitor, and finding just one of them, that’s pretty unusual, so my hypothesis for you is that it is a Philippine sailfin dragon. They often lay relatively small clutches, and the eggs are roughly that shape! So that’s my guess. Hope you find out!”

A sailfin dragon! I completely didn’t consider that lizard species because I’ve never seen one in my area before, but Clint was right, they are indeed native to where I live, and the egg could be a large sailfin dragon egg. Funny he mentioned the species, as I recently adopted two young sailfin dragons that needed a home, and placed them into my giant home aviary. But it’s insane to think that my area might have sailfin dragons as well and that this egg could be a sailfin.

And then, the craziest of all responses I got was from Dingo Dinkelman, South African wildlife expert who also knows his venomous snakes. You won’t believe what he said:

“AntsCanada, Dingo here. When you showed me the picture of that egg, all the butterflies inside my stomach started fluttering because there’s only one of three snakes I think it can be: the reticulated python, which is the longest snake in the world, maybe a Philippine cobra, and then there’s one other, which I’m gonna show you in a moment. I think the egg is too big for a Philippine cobra, I think the egg is maybe too small for a reticulated python, but a snake that I bred personally, I’ve had the eggs in my hand, I’ve looked at them, is probably this guy over here—the King Cobra, the biggest, most venomous snake in all the world, and I think it’s gonna be a King Cobra egg. These snakes are highly venomous but one of the most beautiful snakes you’ll find anywhere in the world. Now, I’m gonna tell you how to take care of that egg. You’re gonna take it, don’t rotate it. If you rotate it, the egg inside is gonna drown, so you want to keep it in the same orientation. Put it in a nice hot, humid place, sitting at about 28-29°C. It’s going to incubate for about 60-70 days, and out of that little egg is gonna come a little black and yellow banded cobra, venomous from the time it pops itself out of the egg. I think what’s happened is there will be nests somewhere around the area, and maybe one of your farmyard animals has gone in there, scuffed up the nest, taken an egg, and moved it out of position. So if I were you, I’d get back into the bush in the area around there, and I would make sure there’s not a whole bunch of eggs sitting around, waiting to hatch somewhere around the farmyard. I’m so excited for you guys, super pumped for you. We’ll see you soon. I can’t wait to see what comes out of your egg. Dingo out!”

Mommy! A king cobra? Ahhh! My heart began to race imagining such a massive and venomous snake could be developing inside. Maybe I shouldn’t be incubating this thing. I began to think twice about caring for it, but he was right about a possible nest being nearby. And what freaked me out was when I realized that I could have actually been bitten when I first picked the egg up, had the mother been somewhere around.

But for the safety of my team and all my animals, I had to go back into my yard to look for a cobra nest. The only place I could think of where a king cobra could be laying and nesting was here. This container unit is used for storage of our supplies, and sometimes I will see my chickens actually wandering out from beneath it. Perhaps my chickens could have miraculously survived picking a cobra egg from its nest?

Trying to control my nervousness, with my mobile stuck onto a long selfie stick, I filmed underneath the container unit, not looking with my eyes just in case there was a cobra under there. I filmed blindly into the darkness, and this is what I saw:

Hmmm… a few pieces of trash, millipedes, leaf litter, and soil. I didn’t see any pile of leaves or debris which a pregnant cobra would create for a nest. Alright, no giant reptiles beneath the unit, and to be honest, I was a bit relieved.

Finally, I also received a message from none other than the one and only Coyote Peterson of the channel Brave Wilderness. Here’s what he had to say!

“Hey Mikey, what’s going on? It’s Coyote Peterson from Brave Wilderness. Thanks for sending those pictures of the mystery egg. I’m not an egg expert by any means whatsoever, even though I did have eggs for breakfast—Velociraptor eggs to be specific. Uh, I sent the picture to a couple of herpetology experts that I know, and they said it’s likely a snake egg. I know you were thinking it could be a reticulated python or a cobra, both species that are in your area, so I’m gonna probably go with snake on this one. Now, they did also call out that it is dehydrated looking, which means that it is unlikely alive at this point. So based on how long it’s been out from under the ground or what sort of heat or cold it’s had, it’s unlikely that something’s gonna come out of it, so maybe you gotta make a reptile egg omelette? I dunno. Actually, I’d probably skip that idea, I’m sure it’s pretty uh, pretty rancid at this point, but thanks for sending over the egg. Happy to participate. Keep up with all the good work with AntsCanada. Love the channel. Stay wild!”

Oh man! So, a snake egg that was likely dead. Noted on that, Coyote. So the guesses were a bit all across the board—from snakes to lizards, dead and unfertilized, to still viable and just needing hydration. Well, it was time to have a look inside the egg using light.

Tyler mentioned candling, and I do it for my chicken eggs that I raise in the incubator. It’s basically just shining a light through the egg to see if you can find arteries or any signs of a fetus. This is what a fertilized chicken egg looks like as a fetus is developing. See the arteries? This is what candling a chicken egg that is close to hatching looks like. It’s basically an opaque dark mass. I imagine in reptile eggs, I should be looking for the same thing.

I picked up the egg from the container and held my light up to the shell. Hmmm… OK… as I checked around the egg, I struggled to find any arteries or a clear mass. I mean, this line could be an artery, right? So, what do you guys think? Despite there not being any obvious venation or fetus inside this egg, it’s also quite possible this egg was very recently laid, so an obvious fetus hadn’t developed yet. Or, it might actually be infertile. What do you guys think?

It was sad to think that the egg may not be a good one, but perhaps it could also explain why whatever animal it came from simply extruded it and just left it there, and not laid it in any sort of nest. Over the next few days, I incubated it in the container, and it sadly did not lose the indentation. The shell also looked like it was kinda starting to possibly rot, so I came to the conclusion that the egg indeed was dead or unfertilized, and was not a good egg.

Instead of throwing it away, I decided that the nutrients would be great for the soil of our rainforest, and I was certain a ton of soil creatures would acquire great nutritional value from the decomposing egg. I approached Pandora and began to bury it into the soil so that it wouldn’t smell too bad as it decomposed over time.

Hey, what could go wrong, right?