Yes, a desert in Namibia
and eggs 50 times heavier, all hatching.
The shell is so strong, the ostrich mother often helps
the chicks out.
The biggest advance is that both parents look after the eggs.
It’s a marriage of necessity, one that goes back to food and hungry mothers.
Birds need to eat more than cold blooded reptiles.
If the father weren’t here, she would either starve or leave.
So he does the night shift.
The brood is then safe from hungry jackals
to be even safer.
Ostriches spread the risks.
Some of them lay eggs in the dominant pair’s nest,
almost like cuckoos.
The top couple don’t object.
Maybe it helps to have a few spare eggs in case a predator comes.
Or maybe there are just too many to count.
But ostriches are good intuitive parents
and with no obvious favorites.
Foster chicks aren’t fussy either.
They imprint on any adult.
Chicks are encouraged to get up and about.
Though it doesn’t look very helpful.
They totter about like children on stilts
and on
the ostriches are devoted to the whole brood.
But they don’t seem to care about specific chicks.
Even their own.
Within hours, the family needs to find water.
It’s a death sentence on any chicks
still hatching
in big families.
It’s not always possible to worry about individuals.
