In order to avoid natural enemies, ostriches began to evolve legs, and gradually became thick and muscular, which made ostriches have extremely fast running speed (up to about 70 kilometers per hour), enough to cope with most large carnivores (the average speed of leopards is 58 kilometers per hour and that of lions is 65 kilometers per hour).
Ostriches belong to social animals. Their social structure is similar to that of lions, and they are all composed of a male and many females. Unlike lions, ostriches have no territorial consciousness and live a nomadic life. In the composition of food, plant food accounts for the highest proportion, and meat (invertebrates and small vertebrates) accounts for a relatively small proportion.
Although the ostrich's wings are highly degraded, in the breeding period, the male's wings can be used for courtship, and the female's wings can also shield the young ostrich from the hot sun.
Therefore, ostrich is a gregarious omnivorous bird that can't fly and is good at running.
Ways for ostriches to avoid danger
As we said above, among all birds, ostrich is the best runner. Its running speed can reach 70 kilometers per hour, which is faster than most large carnivores. Therefore, when an ostrich is in danger, its first reaction is to run away instead of burying its head in the sand.
And even if there is no way out, the ostrich will not give in easily, because it has a thick toe on its foot with long and thick toenails, which is very lethal when kicked. Then, since ostriches run and kick (only forward, which is determined by the joints of their legs), why do many people say that ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they are in danger? (The picture below shows the toenails of ostriches.)
The mystery of ostrich's "burying its head"
Many people think that ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they are in danger for four reasons:
First: eat. Although ostriches are omnivorous birds, their plant food accounts for more than 95%, but in arid deserts and sparse grasslands, there are not many plant food, and the energy of plant food is low, so ostriches are larger and spend most of the day foraging. According to the observation and statistics of scientists, it is found that an adult ostrich has to peck and peck 2000-4000 times a day. When pecking, the ostrich's long neck will inevitably put its head close to the ground, which looks like burying its head in the sand from a distance. Moreover, at such a high frequency, we will find that ostriches always "bury their heads in the sand", including when they are in danger, so this misunderstanding will occur. But in fact, it's just an ostrich eating.
Second: Assisting digestion. As we all know, birds have no teeth, so they can't chew food, so most birds will eat some small sand or stones to help digestion. Ostriches are no exception. They also eat sand or stones into their stomachs to help grind food. The theory is the same as chicken eating stones. So, if you see an ostrich sticking its mouth into the sand in a scene without food, it is actually eating sand. (The picture below is a real shot. In our opinion, the ostrich's whole head has fallen off, but in fact it is eating sand, but its head is located in a low-lying place, so it looks like it is buried in the sand. )
Third: concealment. Because there are few obstacles in the environment where ostriches live, they are easily targeted by carnivores at this time. Therefore, when not foraging, ostriches like to lie on the ground and bury their heads on the ground. The advantage of this is that the color of ostrich feathers is easy to blend with the environmental color, thus forming a protective color, which is not conducive to the locking of natural enemies. In the eyes of some people, this behavior has become "an ostrich burying its head in danger and then pretending to die". In fact, this is an ostrich's self-protection strategy.
Fourth: needed for incubation. Ostriches, like other birds, are egg-laying animals and need to hatch their own eggs. Usually in the breeding period, ostriches hatch eggs alternately, and the hatching work is usually given to females during the day and males at night. However, in the open grassland and desert, tall ostriches are easy to be found even if they crouch and hatch their eggs. Therefore, in order not to be discovered by natural enemies, they usually put their heads on the ground when hatching, which can reduce the risk of being discovered by natural enemies.
Secondly, because the nest where ostriches hatch eggs is sand, there is no grass as soft as other birds, so the eggs are heated unevenly when they hatch. In order to heat the eggs evenly, adult ostriches will turn the eggs over intermittently with their beaks, which in our opinion is to bury their heads in the sand.
abstract
"Ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they are in danger" is actually a rumor, because ostriches mainly run to avoid natural enemies, and this misunderstanding of ostriches has a lot to do with their eating habits, hatching habits, avoiding natural enemies and eating sand. The most important thing is that both the video of the ostrich and the people who see the wild ostrich are far away, which is easy to cause optical illusion.