Where do ostriches live? When did it go extinct?

Open classification: paleontology, birds, Cenozoic, animals, birds.

Dragon bird

Latin scientific name Aepyornis

Body length is 4 meters

Weighing 450 kilograms

herbivore

Pleistocene-Holocene

Distributed in Madagascar

Taxonomic ornithoptera

The heaviest bird, the largest individual is 5.5 meters.

Ostriches, also called elephant birds, mainly live in the forests of Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world. "Rooster" means "a bird protruding high". The ostrich is 2 meters taller than the New Zealand bird (1800 extinct) and even taller than the ostrich, the largest bird in the world now. More than 300 years ago, it was called the largest bird in the world. Even the eggs of ostriches are much bigger than those of the latter two birds. The average ostrich egg is about 1.76 kg, which is equivalent to the weight of more than 200 eggs.

Characteristics of ostrich

An ostrich has a strong body, a long neck and a small head. A blunt beak, two big toes and thick thighs. The forelimbs of the long bird have degenerated, leaving only little wings, whose feathers are similar to those of an emu. It is a giant bird, good at running and jumping, but can't fly. Ostrich is a representative of the large-scale development of early birds, and it has long lived in harmony with other animals on the island. People think that ostriches have rich and delicious meat and slender feathers, which can be used as decorations. In the past, Madagascar residents often hunted ostriches to eat their meat, and feathers were used as decorations on them. They also made necklaces from ostrich leg bones and hung them on their chests. There are many myths and legends about ostriches.

The extinction of the dragon bird

The number of ostriches has been very small. In the17th century, the number of residents in Madagascar increased by more than ten times, and soon there was a situation of being naked and having no food to eat, which accelerated their progress in exploiting nature and plundering natural resources. A large area of forest has been cut down and turned into family fields, which makes birds homeless, many birds have died, and some birds have to steal crops, which is unbearable for local residents who can't fully meet their own needs. Ostrich was once regarded as the enemy and became the main source of meat for local people. They not only killed adult ostriches, but also spared young birds. With the large reduction of forests in Madagascar, there are few adult birds left, as are young birds and eggs.

1649 is the last year that local residents can kill ostriches. Since then, people have never seen ostriches again. However, it is said that an ostrich egg was found in the forest in southern Madagascar on 1849 200 years later, but unfortunately no adult bird was found. Since then, humans have never found any footprints of ostriches, and the title of the world's largest bird has also been given to ostriches under human intervention.

Rooster: 1649 extinct.