The Kiwi’s Darwin Conection

A recent book on Charles Darwin compares the launching of his theory of evolution to a kiwi laying an egg. In The Reluctant Mr Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of his Theory of Evolution, author David Quammen paints the legendary scientist as a painstaking, shy and socially conservative man dabbling in revolutionary and dangerous ideas. Like the long and laborious gestation of a kiwi’s egg, Darwin’s ideas took a great amount of time to develop and reach fruition. “A female brown kiwi weighs less than five pounds,” writes Quammen. “Her egg weighs almost a pound … It seems impossible. How can she carry this thing? How can she deliver? Will it reward her efforts and discomforts, or rip her apart? … The point is simply metaphor. Every time I see that X-ray of the mama kiwi, I think: There’s Darwin during the years of gestation.”