Who hides his head in the sand? Detailed answer

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Who hides his head in the sand? Detailed answer

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Did you know?

Who hides his head in the sand?

And here is wrong.

No one has ever seen an ostrich bury its head in the sand. When ostriches are threatened, they run away - like any sane animal.

The myth of the head and the sand probably arose from the fact that sometimes ostriches lie in their nests (essentially shallow pits), stretching their neck forward, carefully scanning the horizon for danger. If the predator comes too close, the ostriches jump up and give a goose. An ostrich can run at a speed of 65 km/h without stopping for half an hour.

The ostrich is the largest bird on Earth: the male reaches 2 m 70 cm in height, but their brains are the size of a walnut - smaller than their eyeballs.

Carl Linnaeus classified the ostrich as Struthio camelus, that is, "camel sparrow", perhaps due to the fact that ostriches live in the desert and have long camel-like necks. The Greeks called the ostrich homegas strouthos - "big sparrow".

The very first myth about an ostrich hiding its head in the sand is found in the writings of the ancient Roman historian Pliny the Elder, who, by the way, believed that ostriches drill their eggs with a ferocious look so that the offspring hatch quickly.

Pliny, however, forgot to mention the ability of ostriches to swallow absolutely strange things.

In addition to the stones that ostriches use to improve digestion, they are ready to swallow almost everything in the world, whether it be iron, copper, brick or even glass. And one miracle specimen from the London Zoo managed to gobble up a meter of rope, a film cassette, an alarm clock, a bicycle valve, a pencil, a comb, three gloves, a handkerchief, a gold necklace, a wristwatch and a whole bunch of coins.

There is evidence that ostriches in Namibia are not averse to eating even diamonds.

Author: John Lloyd, John Mitchinson

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

What is the first space velocity?

The first cosmic speed is the minimum speed that must be reported to any physical body (for example, a spacecraft) located in the gravitational field of a celestial object (for example, a planet or a star) in order for this body to become a satellite of a celestial object.

On the surface of the Earth (at sea level), the first cosmic velocity is 7,91 kilometers per second (in this case, the Earth is considered to be absolutely smooth and devoid of an atmosphere). With increasing distance from the attracting object, the first escape velocity decreases. So, at an altitude of 300 kilometers above the Earth's surface (sea level), the first cosmic velocity is 7,73 kilometers per second, at an altitude of 1000 kilometers - 4,94 kilometers per second.

The first cosmic velocity on the surface of the Moon is 1,68 kilometers per second.

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