In a moment of pure surprise and a touch of viral hilarity, a barn owl named Ai at Tokuyama Zoo in Shunan, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, stunned both zookeepers and the internet after laying an egg in 2021.
Why the shock? Ai had been identified as male for years, including through a DNA test, and showed no behavior or features to suggest otherwise. That all changed on April 4, when a zookeeper peered into her enclosure and found a 4-centimeter egg tucked beneath her belly.
The discovery prompted the zoo to update Ai’s profile immediately and humorously on social media. On Twitter, they posted:
“On a personal note, I (the owl) laid an egg this morning.”
The egg was unfertilized, so no chick will hatch. But the revelation did hatch something else: a global wave of amusement and curiosity. A now-viral image shows Ai staring at the egg with a puzzled look — leading one Instagram commenter to remark, “She looks like she also just discovered it.”
According to Ichiro Kihara, the zoo’s assistant head keeper, “Everyone at the zoo was surprised.” Ai had been at the zoo since October 2016, and the DNA testing done back then by a research institute returned a result of “male.”
This case highlights a broader issue in avian biology: sexing birds, especially species like barn owls, is not easy. Most barn owls lack clear external markers of gender. Without mating behavior or egg-laying, even DNA results can mislead due to incomplete reference data or lab variability.
The zoo has since updated Ai’s information and placed her near the main gate, where she now enjoys increased attention from visitors and staff alike.
“She’s our main attraction,” said Kihara. “We’d like everyone to keep on loving Ai-chan, just the way she is.”