MY EGG-LAYING MOUNTAIN GOATS

Animal fakes and frauds can turn up in the most unexpected locations. While idly leafing through a box of old postcards at a collector’s fair several years ago, I came upon a delightful black-and-white German picture postcard that I just had to have. It depicted a pair of life-like models of the chamois, that engaging European mountain goat immortalised in the Babycham adverts, but not frolicking on some alpine peak. Instead, they were rearing a clutch of chamois eggs in an eyrie-like nest! As can be seen from this delightful postcard, the female chamois is busy incubating the clutch, including two chamois eggs shown at the very moment of hatching, while her mate stands guard proudly. According to the card’s caption, these chamois and their nest of eggs were discovered on 30 May 1937 upon Gamskogel, a steep mountain in the Austrian Tyrol. Sadly, I have no additional information regarding this wonderful tableau, but it is certainly one of the most charming examples of a Lusus Naturae that I have ever seen!