ostrich 15 February 2010
Thanks to Sean A Taylor for answering my passing query about whether or not ostriches do, in fact, bury their heads in the sand…or indeed any other kind of earth.
Turns out they do not BUT Pliny the Elder may be responsible for starting the rumour that they do – okay, okay, you pedants, to give him his full title etc he is (of course) Gaius Plinius Secundus and his dates are 23 – 79 AD. He was a curious man with an interest in all things natural – so much so that when Vesuvius erupted instead of fleeing he went closer to observe the phenomenon and rescue survivors and died in that act. Anyhow, he issued an encyclopedia of his studies and here’s what he had to say of ostriches, in Book 10, Chapter 1: “…they imagine, when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole of their body is concealed”. Historians assume that this single sentence is the root of the myth about ostriches burying their head in the sand.
There is one interesting ostrich behaviour that comes close to burying their head in the sand. When ostriches feed, they sometimes lay their head flat on the ground to swallow sand and pebbles. The hard grit helps them to grind their food in their crop. From a distance, the ostrich looks like it’s burying its head in the sand.
I thank you!
