Nature. Ostriches and their breeding

African ostriches are the largest contemporary birds in the world. Their average height reaches 2.5 m. They cannot fly, having lost their flying ability in the ancient times but they run perfectly making 64 km/h. The natural habitat of an African ostrich covers sizeable spaces of the African continent from Senegal and Ethiopia on the North to Tanzania on the South, and an independent population lives in South Africa. In Africa, their motherland, ostriches inhabit the open landscapes of deserts and semi-deserts where they overpass considerable distances a day in search for food. The ostrich diet is very modest. Ostriches eat leaves, stems, flowers and seeds of plants, always remaining predominantly as vegetarians. We should note that an African ostrich has a very interesting breeding behavior. The male attracts females making undulations with his wings and neck. Ostriches are polygamists and one male can have a family of five females. They all lay eggs into one mutual nest built on a sandy soil and which reaches 3 meters in diameter.

The ostriches make a small hollow in the soil raking out the sand with their paws and shaping the walls of the nest with their massive body. However only one dominating female broods the laying together with the male and guards its nest plot from the intrusion of other birds. The total number of laid eggs can reach 40 but the dominating female does not keep more than 20 of them including her own which are hatched by the parents. Both parents guide the brood protecting the helpless nestlings from danger and sheltering them from cold.

Out of the period of propagation the ostriches can gather in flocks up to 30-40 birds sometimes forming crowds up to 600 birds in the watering places of desert regions. In the 18-19^th century of Common Era ostriches were bagged for the famous ostrich feathers, firm skin and meat. This lead to the disappearance of ostriches in a number of regions of previous inhabitance; thus the ostrich was not preserved on the Arabian Peninsula where it inhabited the sandy deserts. At present time ostriches are successfully bred in different countries of the world. The ostrich production is practically consumed by people in full: feathers, skin, meat and bones - everything is processed and used.

Ostriches are enduring; they bear abrupt fluctuations in temperature and can survive even in cold lands with a right balanced nutrition. Therefore ostrich farms are created and function successfully in some Baltic countries and in Russia. In Uzbekistan first attempts to breed African ostriches are made by the "Jizak - Biospectrum" company which keeps ostriches on a farm close to Aydar Lake. This is why we may hope that after some time Uzbekistan will also become a producer of ostrich meat and feathers. However the farm is meanwhile on the stage of gaining experience in keeping and breeding of these amazing birds in the complicated conditions of the Kyzylkum desert.