Ostrich Love

While on the way to a den session in Pond territory, I came across a two ostriches in mid courtship.

Female ostrich "hen" in mid display to the male.

In general, we don't usually pay much attention to ostriches as hyenas rarely, if ever, hunt them. Most of the time when we see them, they're strutting majestically around in small flocks. Luckily enough I remembered to take a video because what followed was hilarious.

Reading up about ostriches, males establish territories between 2 - 20 sq km (.77 - 7.72 sq mi). After mating with 2-7 hens, he then digs out a pit for the females to lay their eggs in. On average there are about 20 eggs per nest. The females incubate the eggs during the day, while the male incubates them at night, both using their coloration as camouflage. While the ostrich egg is the largest and heaviest egg in the world: 5 cm (5.9 in) long, 13 cm (5.1 in) wide, and 1.4 kilograms (3.1 lb) in weight. They turn our to be the smallest eggs relative to adult body size of any bird species.