Of Ostriches

Ok, my Library working committee and a few selected Librarians went on a lawatan sambil belajar yesterday to an ostrich farm about 3 hours from our school. In this:

There were 10 of us at the back. And I sat right at the back, where all the dust hits first. Needless to say, at the end of our trip back, I was sporting a new hairstyle.

So here's a few things I thought was interesting about ostriches:

• They only have two toes! Very, very interesting, especially in terms of how they can manage to balance themselves.

• The mass of an ostrich egg can be as heavy as 1 - 1.2 kg! I'm holding an empty egg shell here, costs RM 10. A "full" egg for cooking can be bought at RM 20. And guess how much one egg can fill you?

• See the dish on the right? All fried eggs. Or should I say, all fried EGG. Only ONE ostrich egg and you can have a proper egg fest. Best part is... One ostrich egg has the same amount of cholestrol as ONE CHICKEN EGG.

• Ostrich meat is a red meat, unlike chicken. Btw, tastes like beef or deer.

• The full height (when the neck is all straight up) of an adult ostrich can range from 6 - 8 feet tall. This particular breed, the Blue Neck ostrich, is 9 feet tall! Btw, 6 months is already teenage ostrich, 9 months is adult ostrich, and ostriches have been known to live up to 60 years! Oh yes, and the mass of an ostrich brain is only 40 grams.

• Ostrich bones are very, very soft when they are young. This 2 month old baby ostrich has a slight defect on it's right leg, due to an accident.

• Ostriches can actually DIE from tiredness, especially long period of carrying baggage or people. Interestingly, they can carry a mass of up to 120 kg. 7 of my students went on this particular ostrich, I was the 5th one. Poor thing.

So, it was a fun day, and I learnt much. Ostriches even have a kind of dance, which is hilarious. It involves running around, and then spinning around in circles. Reminds me of a ballet exercise.

The group with an albino ostrich.