The Ostrich

Natasha and Emmanuel told us an incredible story about an ostrich that they raised in the spring and summer of 2014.  Apparently, Emmanuel's mother likes to try new projects, and decided ostriches would be an interesting new kind of cattle. Ostriches eat only grass like geese, yet grow to produce massive amounts of red meat. They are raised in male-female pairs as the females have a calming effect on the males.

So a pair of young ostriches was purchased and brought out to the Aiyukama farm.The ostrich corral was in the cattle and aquaponics enclosure with brick walls on three sides and a strong wooden fence for the fourth. Though the pair of ostriches survived the trip, the female didn't live into adulthood--she was kicked by a cow and lamed, causing an early death.  The male grew full size-seven feet tall with a huge body and strong legs with clawed feet.  He was very gentle when young and was given liberty to wander the cattle enclosure with the cows and geese. But as he grew, he was occasionally more aggressive.

Ostriches are said to need regular human contact and kind attention to keep them friendly, but the farm workers were intimidated by the growing animal, and took to throwing stones or sticks to scare it away if they needed to work in that area. However his behavior was not often aggressive, and most of the time it just grazed with the geese.

Apparently, ostriches have a five-day memory—you mistreat one, it will be five days before he lets you approach him again.  So relations, as they say, began to break down.  A security man was knocked to the ground and kicked by the bird so hard that a doctor checked him to see if he had broken ribs.  Worse, a young farm worker, cleaning up the cow manure, was attacked more viciously—she was knocked down and kicked multiple times.  Four men, bearing sticks, came to her rescue, driving away the bird and possibly saving her life.  When she was taken to hospital, she told nurses that she was attacked by a large bird (she didn't know the word for ostrich in the local language). Nurses frankly didn't believe her, telling her that she needed to report to the police that her husband had beaten her badly. Needless to say, after these incidents the ostrich was kept in his own corral behind the strong wooden fence.

The wooden fence surrounding the ostrich's corral

Then the ostrich "went into heat," his beak and neck reddening , his temper flaring, his strength increasing. One day during a school vacation, Natasha, Emmanuel and the three children came out to the farm and went through the chain link gate into the cattle compound to check on the aquaponics plant. After looking around a bit, the children became restless and asked to walk somewhere else, so Natasha led them out of the enclosure while Emmanuel continued to work with two farm workers on the aquaponics system.

Suddenly the ostrich kicked down the wooden fence and ran at Emmanuel, holding his wings out beside his massive feathered chest.  Thankfully, the moats and gates of the aquaponics area deterred the creature, who then ran to the fastened chain link gate, kicked it down and ran out onto the school campus.  Emmanuel was terrified-where was his family?  Playing by the fountain or the basketball courts?  Were they in his office or out by the kitchens?  Would the bird attack them or run away?  Emmanuel watched the bird run out into an open field behind the classrooms, then out an opening in the walled compound.  His family was nowhere in sight.  Later, to his great joy and relief, he found them happily reading in his office library.

The chain link fence he kicked down

 

Once through the fence, he ran along this parking area to the fields beyond.  Emmanuel's office is in the building to the left.

But there was work to be done—immediately Emmanuel and his staff called the police, the nearby school, animal control, and all the neighbors.  A dangerous ostrich was loose.  People needed to protect themselves.

Animal control wanted to capture the creature with sleeping darts, but where to find him?  They searched unsuccessfully for three nerve-wracking days during which time the bird terrorized the local school and some neighbors. The family knew only too well the damage it could inflict, and feared the worst.  Finally a local hunter asked for permission to kill the menace. "Yes, please!" replied the Opare family, and he began tracking.

Eventually he came upon the exhausted beast, resting in the grass.  He shot it in the chest-unfortunately the least effective place to shoot an ostrich. The bullet bounced off the bony, leathery chest area, and the enraged ostrich charged.  Incredibly, the hunter kept his cool, and fired twice more before it lay dead.  Thankfully, no one had been hurt.

The hunter was rewarded with a generous share of the good, red meat.  The remaining meat filled two empty grain sacks and was happily stashed in the Opare freezer to be savored at family dinners.

Now months have passed, the excitement has died down and the question arises:  Shall we try ostriches again?  However, Natasha and Emmanuel, with memories longer than five days are adamant: NO!