Close-up of an Ostrich seen on our Ostrich farm tour
Last November I took a cruise to the Caribbean, Panama, and Costa Rica. This trip was truly an amazing experience. Since this cruise was on a large cruise ship it was not very environmentally oriented, so when looking at side trips I took trips that would get me outside, and might have the highest probability of seeing birds
Another of the Ostriches seen on our tour
One of the most interesting trips was to an Ostrich Farm in Curacao. The area was beautiful! When we arrived, they had an open-air truck with shaded benches for us to ride on for the tour.
The information they gave us about the ostriches was very interesting. At the ostrich farm these birds are being raised for food – the part I found the most interesting was that they find ways to use every part of the bird, and nothing goes to waste.
Ostrich chicks hatched at the farm
I found that the most entertaining part of this whole trip was listening to the questions the adults presented – in particular there were two questions that made me sit up straight in my seat. The first was, “Do you clip the birds’ wings to keep them from flying away?” The second was, “Do ostriches nest in trees?”
After a quick review of these questions I realized that not everyone grows up being exposed to the natural world around them as I was, and these are the people we most need to reach.
Juveniles in their natural environment in the Masai Mara
At World Bird Sanctuary we take every question asked of us very seriously. It may be obvious to most that Ostriches are flightless and therefore don’t need their wings clipped. It also may be obvious to most that Ostriches nest on the ground. However, if you don’t take all questions seriously, and someone gets hurt because you think they should already know something, then the person asking may shy away from asking other questions and lose future opportunities to learn. If all are informed properly about birds, their newly acquired knowledge can only help WBS toward its mission to preserve all the world’s birds in their natural environments.
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