Ostrich

About This Project

The world’s largest bird!

You will recognise the male ostrich by its black and white plumage; the females are brown. Like the other ratites (emus, cassowaries, rheas and kiwis), ostriches are flightless; however, they can run at speeds of up to 70 kph: the fastest bird on land!

More records: its eyes, the largest of all the land animals, and its eggs (16 cm long, 1.5 kg, the equivalent of 24 hen’s eggs!).

To avoid detection, it sometimes lies flat on the ground with its neck stretched out: probably the origin of the myth that it buries its head in the sand!

At La Barben zoo, you can see a group of ostriches leaving near the African plain!

Latin name: Struthio camelus
Class: Aves
Order: Struthioniformes
Family: Struthionidae
Size: 1.7 – 2.7 metres tall
Weight: 90-130 kg
Lifespan: 50 years
Incubation: 40 days
Number of eggs: 2-11
Habitat: 1/2 desert, 1/2 savannah
Diet: seeds/fruits/insects ????
Distribution: Central and southern Africa. Introduced into Australia
Conservation status: Least Concern

Category
Aves