They may look goofy, but ostriches are nobody?s fool

In any case, the male and female ostrich have moved on, as they often do when a nest is disturbed. Undaunted, she finds an excuse to walk in front of him, wings low and trembling.“But he isn’t convinced,” Magige says.Today’s ostrich range isdifficult to define as populations decrease.In the 1960s one subspecies of the common ostrich went extinct from hunting and habitat loss. North African ostriches, now rarely found in their historic range, have declined precipitously.Common ostrich (Struthio camelus)North African ostrich (S.c. camelus)Masai ostrich (S.c. massaicus)South African ostrich (S.c. australis)Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes)Common ostrichup to 9 ftMaleFemaleEggCHRISTINA SHINTANI AND TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO, NGM STAFFSOURCES: IUCN; BRIAN BERTRAM; FLORA JOHN MAGIGE, UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAMToday’s ostrich range is difficult to defineas populations decrease.In the 1960s one subspecies of the common ostrich went extinct from hunting and habitat loss. North African ostriches, now rarely found in their historic range, have declined precipitously.Common ostrich (Struthio camelus)North African ostrich (S.c. camelus)Masai ostrich (S.c. massaicus)South African ostrich (S.c. australis)Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes)Common ostrichup to 9 ftMaleFemaleEggCHRISTINA SHINTANI AND TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO, NGM STAFFSOURCES: IUCN; BRIAN BERTRAM; FLORA JOHN MAGIGE, UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAMToday’s ostrich range is difficult to define as populations decrease.In the 1960s one subspecies of the common ostrich went extinct from hunting and habitat loss. North African ostriches, now rarely found in their historic range, have declined precipitously.Common ostrich (Struthio camelus)North African ostrich (S.c. camelus)Masai ostrich (S.c. massaicus)South African ostrich (S.c. australis)Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes)Common ostrichup to 9 ftMaleFemaleEggCHRISTINA SHINTANI AND TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO, NGM STAFFSOURCES: IUCN; BRIAN BERTRAM; FLORA JOHN MAGIGE, UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAMThe seduction takes more than an hour. We turn to leave for our own lunch, and when we pause for one last look back, all three females are approaching the male, their wings held out and softly shaking.We had followed this group of ostriches in the hope that they would lead us to a nest, but an ostrich nest can be hard to see even when you know exactly where it is. Sometimes the easiest way to find a nest is just to sit and wait for another ostrich to come visiting, which happens with surprising frequency.One afternoon we take up position in a great open plain and soon find that it’s a thriving ostrich territory. It’s not brood parasitism; it’s communal nesting, and like promiscuity, it’s a way for ostriches to achieve reproductive success in a hazardous world.That’s not to say all is sisterly love and happiness. No one knows how she can tell the difference, but she routinely keeps her own eggs in the center of the nest, and consigns those of other females to what Bertram calls “the doomed outer ring.” Having more chicks together after hatching also makes it less likely her chicks will be the ones picked off by a predator.One of the most striking things to me about ostriches, apart from their size, is the sense that they are in motion even when standing still. Jackals sometimes bowl one egg against another; Egyptian vultures toss stones.Beginning in the 1860s, when the feather trade was already pushing ostriches to extinction in some areas, farmers here helped pioneer captive breeding. “At day 42,” says Saag Jonker, a prominent local farmer, “the chick breaks through into an air pocket in the egg, inhales, and gets the strength to break through the shell.” It may live a year, if bred for meat and leather, up to 15 years if bred for feathers, with plucking at roughly nine-month intervals.The ostrich trade has always been an unpredictable business, with prices fluctuating wildly at the whim of international fashion. One morning at De Hoop Nature Reserve on the southern tip of Africa, I watch a male ostrich and a female feeding.