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| Entering the Western Ostrich Farm |
Our guide, with an ostrich skeleton. |
These are very cool birds. |
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| Chicks - hatched here in an incubator. |
A young female |
Tortoises also live here |
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| Emu - native to Australia, but here for educational purposes. |
A female "white" ostrich |
A lovely male ostrich |
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| There are 18 sleek vertebrae in their muscled necks, allowing for extreme flexiblity & mobility. |
A pen of ostriches |
Sad, but educational & only an irritant to the ostrich.... One could sit on this poor fellow. He is a 10 year old who was born & raised here. |
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| Preening a tail feather |
Ostriches do not chew, they swallow their food whole by "tossing" it down their gullet. They also consume rocks to aid them in digestion, and replace these rocks every few months. |
Posing next to our trapped ostrich... I didn't get on him. I figured if I'm ever going to "ride" one (they race them, you know), it better have a chance to toss me off properly. |
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| I love their faces. |
Their beaks are very soft, like thick leather. They have 4, independently controlled nostrils, 2 in each side. They can close off one side in a wind storm to avoid inhaling dust. |
A single ostrich eye ball weighs 60 grams! Their eyesight is their strongest sense. But....their brain only weighs 40 grams. |
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| Ostriches eyelashes are long to shade for better sight and for protection. |
Ostriches have large ears, but rather poor hearing. |
Ostriches hiss and can seem intimidating at first. Bill loves ostriches. (: |
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| Not a bad view from this pen. Table Mountain and Lions Head in the background. |
Just a nice shot. |
A mix of males & females. |
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| Profile |
Ostriches can swing their esophogus around to the back of their neck when necessary, to protect it, when fighting or defending themselves. |
A play fight breaks out. They have VERY powerful legs, and one large toenail used in self defense. They pack a nasty kick upward, but do not "stomp" their enemy. |
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| Hissing and chasing |
Ruffled feathers |
These beautiful feathers take a bit of attention. Their feathers are incredibly soft!! |
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| A scene to the other side of the property, in Durbanville, about 40 minutes outside Cape Town. |
Shake a tail feather - ducks snacking in the pond. |
A lady in the back pen |
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| A friendly male with a "soft nibble" so I hung around feeding him corn snacks for a while. |
Ostrich egg art. Ostrich eggs are very strong with a 2mm thick shell. They can be used for water containers and much more. One ostrich egg = 24 chicken eggs... when consuming them. |