{"id":69908,"date":"2016-06-16T09:55:32","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T13:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=69908"},"modified":"2016-06-15T15:02:07","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T19:02:07","slug":"two-female-ostrich-arrive-at-utica-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=69908","title":{"rendered":"Two female ostrich arrive at Utica Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"three<\/a>Utica Zoo is excited to announce the arrival of two female ostrich. The ostrich, Bina and Bushara are joining\u00a0Utica\u2019s male ostrich, Boomer, who has been at the zoo since February of 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a long time to wait for a date, but we\u2019re hoping they\u2019ll be worth the wait for Boomer,\u201d said Alex Weaver, Area Lead\u00a0Keeper for the ostrich.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our chance to play matchmaker \u2013 ostrich edition,\u201d said Andria Heath, Executive Director of the zoo. Both females are\u00a03 years old which is considered sexually mature for ostrich. Although they were born and raised on the same farm, they are not related. In the wild, ostrich live alone or in pairs but it is not unusual to see them gathered in herds of a dozen or\u00a0more animals, referred to as a flock or herd. One male will usually lead a group of\u00a0two to seven females.<\/p>\n

Ostrich are certainly birds of distinction: they are the largest bird on earth and can weigh more than 300 pounds. They are also the\u00a0fastest terrestrial bird on earth capable of sprinting 45 mph and have the largest eggs. One ostrich egg can weigh three pounds and is equivalent to 12 chicken eggs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy to have this chance to show off a remarkable and often overlooked species,” Heath said. “Every animal in the zoo\u00a0represents a teaching opportunity for us with the public. I\u2019ve always loved ostrich and it\u2019s exciting to see other people\u00a0enjoying them as much as I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most ostrich are not consider endangered although their numbers in the wild have been declining in the wild according to\u00a0the Avian Scientific Advisory Group. Most ostrich in the US are considered hybrids, being considered Somali or Maasai\u00a0subspecies or a blend. One subspecies, the North African ostrich is considered critically endangered. Currently, they are\u00a0not held in U.S. zoos and conservation efforts are restricted to field research in the South Sahara.<\/p>\n

The lovely, long-legged ladies were given Swahili names by the keepers at the zoo that they thought reflected their\u00a0impressions and personalities. Bina means \u201cdancer\u201d and Bushara means \u201cgood news\u201d in Swahili. See the new ostrich\u00a0females and Boomer sharing the exhibit with the Hartsmann\u2019s Mountain Zebra in the Utica Zoo\u2019s African Alley.<\/p>\n

To stay up to date on all things Utica Zoo, visit UticaZoo.org, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @UticaZoo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Utica Zoo is excited to announce the arrival of two female ostrich. The ostrich, Bina and Bushara are joining\u00a0Utica\u2019s male ostrich, Boomer, who has been at the zoo since February of 2011. \u201cIt\u2019s a long time to wait for a date, but we\u2019re hoping they\u2019ll be worth the wait for Boomer,\u201d said Alex Weaver, Area […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23813,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/69909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}