Ostriches are the largest living birds in the world, and their meat tastes delicious. That’s not what this article is only about, ostriches are also extremely important to human beings for other reasons besides food. They’re an essential part of ecosystems due to their wide range of diets.
Ostriches are very important. Although they may not play a huge role in many people’s lives, ostriches do provide an enormous amount of benefits to society. They are natively found in Africa in open arid and semi-arid habitats.
For those who do not know the significance of ostriches, this article will share fifteen reasons why ostriches are important.
15 Benefits Of Ostriches That Make Them Even Valuable
Ostriches are one of the largest living birds in the world today. They can grow up to as much as 150 pounds and as tall as five feet.
One of the most notable features of these creatures is their feathers, which come in a variety of colors such as grey, tan, white, brown, and black.
Ostriches are the fast runners than any bird or other two-legged animal and can sprint at over 70 km/hr, covering up to 5m in a single stride.
Here we will count down 15 different reasons that will show everyone why ostriches are important.
1. Ostriches Help Maintain Landscape
Ostriches eat the majority of plants in their habitat, which helps to maintain the landscape and prevent overgrowth. They’re an invaluable part of maintaining these ecosystems.
Ostriches are very important to the ecosystem because they help spread grass around, which helps prevent fires. It can protect habitats from wildfire.
Ostrich grazing also reduces weed growth, parasites, and diseases within the soil which makes it easier for future generations of plants to grow.
2. Ostriches Protect Animals From Poisonous Plants
Ostriches eat poisonous plants that would kill many other animals, which makes them invaluable for every ecosystem that contains these plants!
3. Ostriches Provide Home For Weak Animals
Ostriches create holes in the dirt with their feet to make nests and lay their eggs in. These holes are very helpful for other animals as they provide a safe place to sleep or hide from predators.
Ostriches are an irreplaceable part of every ecosystem. Without ostriches, many animals would die because they’d have no place to hide from their predators. If all the ostriches died and ceased to exist, many other species would struggle to survive as well.
4. Ostriches Are Important In The Textile Industry
Ostriches’ feathers are extremely useful to human beings. They’re made into clothes, quilts, bedding, and more because of their warmth and durability.
Ostrich feathers are very strong and useful. They don’t wear out easily and keep their shape much better than other types of a feather do. This is one reason why so many people love wearing ostrich feather items; they last a long time and look great!
Related Video – The Ostrich’s Anti-Predator Tactics
5. Ostriches Are Used To Make Leather Products
Ostrich leather is very strong and flexible, so it’s used for shoes, belts, purses, and wallets.
Ostrich leather is very soft and comfortable to wear, but it’s also strong and durable! It doesn’t crack as easily as other types of leather do. This makes ostrich leather a great material for making different kinds of items that people use every day, including shoes, gloves, and more.
6. Ostriches Are Used To Make Paintbrushes
Ostrich feathers can be used for paintbrushes and feather dusters as ostrich feathers have such tiny barbs on them, they make excellent paintbrushes or feather dusters.
Feather dusters can trap more dust and therefore clean your home better. If you ever need paintbrushes, ostrich hair makes for some of the best ones.
7. Ostriches Eggshells Are Used For Making Kitchen Utensils
Some cultures use ostrich eggshells to make containers and utensils for cooking or storage.
8. Ostriches Can Be Domesticated
People have trained ostriches to do tricks since they were first domesticated around 2500 BC. No other bird has ever been domesticated that can be taught so many things. Although it isn’t as common as it used to be, ostrich races were very popular in the United States until 1919.
9. Ostriches Act As House Guard
The ostrich is the most giant living bird in the world, weighing up to 350 pounds and standing between 9 and 14 feet high. People use ostriches as “guards” or watch birds that sit on top of poles or signs so people know if anyone tries to mess with their property!
Ostriches make good guards, for protecting other types of birds and farm animals like chickens and ducks from predators. They do this by making a thunderous hissing sound when they see an animal that shouldn’t be on the farm.
10. Ostriches Oil Has A Lot Of Product Utility
Ostrich fat is rendered into oil that can be used to make soap or lubricants. What’s more, the oil is also used for cooking, lighting fires and even fueling cars.
11. Ostriches Can Treat Arthritis
Ostrich oil can be used to treat arthritis because of the way that ostrich oil works with human muscle cells, it is now being studied as a potential treatment for arthritis.
Ostrich oil stimulates collagen growth in joints which helps alleviate pain brought on by arthritis. Arthritis tends to develop when there are not enough cells around the joints, this new medication uses special ostrich peptides that help rebuild the bone cells, allowing your bones to move freely.
12. Ostriches Can Treat Wounds
Ostrich oil contains several different types of fatty acids and antioxidants that can help speed up the healing process and leave your skin looking healthier.
It’s packed with many vitamins and nutrients such as Vitamin E, A, B5, K1, Copper, and Zinc which are all essential for maintaining healthy skin.
13. Ostriches Can Act As Fertilizers
The bones are ground up into a powder that is used as fertilizer. This is called bone ash and can be used as a source of organic fertilizers.
14. Ostriches Can Prevent Wildfire
Ostriches play a major role in preventing fires by eating dry grass and plants which can help reduce potential prevent fires from spreading to unburned areas. This is important because it prevents even more habitats from being destroyed and their offspring from dying as well.
15. Ostriches Are A Delicacy
Ostriches are a great source of food, which helps eliminate the possibility of starving if there’s a shortage of other kinds of meat. Ostrich meat is very nutritious and tastes more like beef.
Ostriches lay eggs that are huge! Sometimes they’re as big as two dozen chicken eggs put together! These eggs are very nutritious; people make omelets with them or fry them for food when they don’t feel like eating anything else.
The Importance Of Ostriches – Conclusion
Ostriches are a very important part of South Africa’s ecosystem. They’re also helpful when it comes to preventing fires and providing food in the form of eggs or meat.
Ostriches can be domesticated and taught many tricks that make them popular show animals. Their feathers have many uses, especially in regard to home decorating, and ostrich oil is used for treating arthritis and cancer.
Ostriches are a well-rounded animal in terms of usefulness in this day and age, which makes it all the more important to protect them in a time when poaching could ultimately wipe them from existence.
References
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/facts/ostrich
- https://www.shoepassion.com/shoe-encyclopedia/leather/ostrich-leather/
- https://www.thoughtco.com/who-really-domesticated-ostriches-169368
