Ostrich Facts

Ostriches are the largest flightless bird living today, and also happen to lay the largest eggs of any living bird in existence today. In fact, the Guinness World Record for the largest egg laid by a bird was achieved during 2008 on a farm in Sweden – the egg weighed 5 pounds and 11.36 ounces. A typical ostrich egg is equivalent to about two dozen chicken eggs.

The shells of ostrich eggs are so thick that most people recommend getting into them by boring in with an electric drill. They usually take about two hours to cook, due to the thickness of the shell.

Ostriches sleep standing up. Ostriches are the fastest two-legged creature in the world. An ostrich when pushed or in danger can achieve speeds of up to 43 miles per hour, and can steadily keep up a pace of about 30 miles per hour for 10 miles at a time without needing to slow down or rest.

Ostriches are found naturally in Africa, but many are also found in southern Australia and some are farmed in the US.

Ostriches do not stick their head in sand when startled or threatened. They dig shallow holes in the dirt to use as nests for their eggs. Several times a day, a bird puts her head down and turns the eggs. It just looks like she is burying her head in the sand.

Fabricated Animal Facts

Rabbits eat carrots, but as any bunny owner will attest, rabbits prefer leafy green vegetables. The image of the rabbit enjoying a carrot was made iconic by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. However, when Bugs first did it, he was actually parodying a then famous scene from another movie called It Happened One Night. In the movie, Clark Gable is munching away on the carrot while talking and, when Bugs did it, he was merely referencing a scene which was quite well-known at the time, but became less so over the years.

Old cartoons tell us elephants love peanuts and they were constantly fed peanuts at circuses and zoos. This is no longer a common practice. In the wild, peanuts are not a part of an elephant’s diet and most who have been fed peanuts in captivity do not like them. They prefer hay and other grains along with fruits and vegetables.

An elephant's nose is a regular nose. Since it is very long and dexterous, an elephant can use it to grab things, but its primary role is to breathe air, just like any other nose. Something an elephant definitely cannot do is drink water through it like a straw. It might appear that way, because elephants do suck in water through their trunks, but only to carry it into their mouths.

Ostriches been never been observed sticking their head in a hole, except in cartoons. When an ostrich is in danger, it will either 'fight or flight' like most other animals. It is equipped to do both quite well. It can reach speeds of up to 40 mph. In a fight, an ostrich has big, sharp claws and a kick powerful enough to take down a lion.

Eight More Egg Facts

We all know dinosaurs laid eggs. Ostriches and turkeys also lay eggs, but the ones we eat most often are chicken eggs.
Eggs take about 24 to 26 hours to form inside a hen.
An average hen can lay 250 to 270 eggs per year.
In China, approximately 390 billion eggs are produced a year, while the US produces about 75 billion eggs a year.
An egg shell is made of calcium carbonate and makes up 9-12 percent of an egg's total weight. It contains pores that allow oxygen in and carbon dioxide and moisture out.
The blood sometimes seen in an egg comes from the rupture of small blood vessels in the yolk. It does not indicate the egg is unsafe to eat.
An average person on Earth consumes 173 eggs a year (less than one chicken lays).
The world record for eating hard-boiled eggs is 65 in 6min 40sec, by Sonya Thomas in 2003. She would have eaten more but they ran out of eggs.
Here is the big answer to the big question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. The egg came first, because dinosaurs laid eggs before chickens evolved.

Biggest and Smallest Eggs

The Ostrich lays the smallest egg for its size. Although the Ostrich egg is the largest single cell in nature, it is less than one and a half per cent of the weight of the mother. A wren’s egg, by comparison, is 13 per cent of its weight.

The largest egg in comparison with the size of the bird is that of the Little Spotted Kiwi. Its egg accounts for 26 per cent of its own weight. That would be the equivalent of a woman giving birth to a six-year-old child.

An ostrich egg weighs as much as twenty-four hen’s eggs. Can you imagine how much bacon it would take to go with an Ostrich egg omelet?

Ostriches Bury Their Heads Myth Debunked

This is one of those myths that is accepted as fact without question. People generally believe this is something the birds do when danger is near.

Ostriches do run if they feel that danger is approaching, but they also have a powerful kick to defend themselves. Ostriches may hold their heads low in an attempt to be harder to see, but they do not actually bury their heads.

Animal Sounds

Here are some interesting animal tidbits. You can tell a turtle’s gender by the noise it makes. Males grunt and females hiss. Pigs exhibit more than 20 vocalizations for various circumstances. Houseflies always hum in the key of F. Male ostriches can roar like lions. Giraffes have no vocal cords and humpback whales create the loudest sound of any living creature.