Common Ostrich

Struthio camelus · Bird

Ostriches wander the dry, sandy savannas and scrub of Africa south of the Sahara in flocks of up to fifty in the breeding season, and once ranged into Arabia and southwest Asia. They outrun most threats, but a cornered bird kicks hard enough to wound a person. They were hunted almost to extinction for their plumes, as well as for leather and eggs whose shells African peoples used to carry water, and farming began by the mid 1800s.

Danger

Can wound or kill

How it is met

In flocks, by day

Size

Large

In winter

Active in winter

Where it lives

Tropical Dry Forest, Savanna

Gives

Ostrich Plume, Ostrich Egg, Ostrich Leather

Sources

• Keenan Donegan, Struthio camelus (ostrich). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, 2002.

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