OSTRICHFeatured in the "Challenges of Life" episode of Life.
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Video: Watch cheetahs hunt an ostrich.
Interact: Explore how cheetahs are built to hunt ostriches. Quiz: Take the "Hunt Like a Cheetah" quiz. HowStuffWorks: Why do ostriches have red meat instead of white? The Earth is home to thousands of bird species, yet the ostrich stands alone in the modern world, the sole survivor of both the genus Struthio and family Struthionidae.
FLEET FEET, NOT FLIGHT
With a height of 7 to 9 feet (2.1 to 2.7 meters), the ostrich is the planet's largest living bird. It's also the only feathered creature to boast just two toes on each foot. More resembling a cloven hoof than a bird's claw, these massive feet can both run from and defend against hungry predators.
Each foot is padded on the bottom, with an inside toe measuring some 7 inches long (nearly 18 centimeters) and ending in a sharpened talon. When driven by the ostrich's powerfully muscled legs, these feet can propel the bird to speeds of 43 miles an hour (70 kilometers an hour) or launch a kick capable of killing man or lion.
NATURE'S SENTINELS
Ostriches travel in herds across Africa's savannas and deserts, feeding on plants and whatever else they can find in such a parched landscape. The herds remain on constant guard against danger, using their acute hearing, long necks and keen eyes (the largest of any land animal) to scan for creeping predators. The great bird makes an ideal lookout for grazing mammals, who will sometimes linger near an ostrich herd for safety.
Should trouble arise in the form of three big cats lurking close by, an ostrich can either flee or fight. In either case, their tiny wings can serve as rudders to help maintain balance or, all fluffed up, as an intimidation factor. Two fingers on each wing are equipped with claws, too.
BORN TO RUN
Among their own kind, the male ostriches spar for dominance. The top male maintains the herd and mates with the dominant hen. The other females couple with lesser males, but all the herd's eggs wind up in one central nest under the dominant couple's care.
After 42 to 46 days, the eggs hatch and within minutes the chicks begin to run — their first steps in a life defined by endless wanderings, frantic escapes and the eternal struggle to stay one step ahead of their voracious adversaries.
Written by Robert Lamb, HowStuffWorks
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