Karen McKay, age 10, of Merrillville, Ind., for her question:
DOES THE OSTRICH HAVE ANY VALUE?
A male ostrich usually has more than one mate. He will dig a shallow nest in the sand and then from three to five hens will lay their eggs in the nest. Each lays as many as 10 eggs which weigh about three pounds and measure about six inches in diameter. The male sits on the eggs at night and during the day the hens share the job of keeping the eggs warm.
Someone once said that the ostrich looks as if he were composed by a committee. He's a rather strange looking creature. Standing about eight feet tall and weighing as much as 345 pounds, the world's largest bird can't fly ¬but his long legs can carry him in 15 foot steps at speeds up to 40 miles per hour.
Outside of being a real favorite in your zoo, the ostrich doesn't have too much value these days. There is some ostrich farming in South Africa today, where about 25,000 birds are raised each year for the fine quality of their leather. But outside of this limited value, the bird has no commercial benefits for man.
In the late 1800s and the early 1900s, ostrich plumes were No. I on the fashion charts. Every stylish lady had to have some plumes on her hats and clothing. At this time great flocks of the birds roamed Africa and western Asia. Hunters killed thousands of them just for their plumes, since the flesh was tough and did not taste good. Wholesale killing stopped after most of the flocks were wiped out, and they were grown on farms where expensive plumes could be taken twice a year from live birds. Then the plume went out of fashion, and the ostrich's value was gone.
The ostrich wasn't always the world's largest bird. The extinct elephant birds of Madagascar, which weighed about 7,000 pounds, were the only ones that were heavier. And the also extinct moas of New Zealand, which stood 10 feet tall, were the only birds taller than the ostrich.
A strange voice comes out of the male ostrich. It's a deep roar like that of a lion, accompanied by a strange hissing sound. The ostrich has two main enemies on his native African grounds: the lion and man. He has unusually good eyesight and, when that is matched with his running speed, he can usually stay a safe distance from danger. The ostrich has another distinctive feature: he is the only bird with two toes on each foot.
The male ostrich has black feathers on his bulky body with large white plumes on his small wings and tail. His neck is long and thin with a small head mounted on top. He has lots of bare skin that varies in color from blue to pink. His beautiful, big eyes are surrounded by thick, black eyelashes.
The female ostrich's body, tail and wings are dull brown in color.