ostriches

[Pat Macwhirter <>]

> Have
> ostriches ever been exported to America?
> I'm reading
> a novel which tells of a family who imported ostriches from Australia
> and lost their fortune trying to farm them in America in the
> 1940's.  I'm sure the author meant to say from South Africa
> and not Australia. 
> It's hard
> to believe he never researched this book thoroughly before writing
> it, so I thought I better make sure he was wrong before I write him a
> letter pointing out his mistake.
> Cheers
> Lorna

I posed Lorna's question to Doug Black, an ostrich vet of note, and he replied as follows:

>Dear Pat,
>
>Most of the ostrich imports into the USA in the late 1800's and early
1900's
>that are well documented were from the Cape Colony of South Africa. I guess
>it was possible that some came from Australia but I have not seen that
>documented anywhere. The other odd thing is the timing that is cited. After
>the massive slump in the industry in the 1914-1916 period bird numbers
>dropped drastically. There was very little activity in ostrich farming
>anywhere in the world in the 1940's. In fact, the major player in the
modern
>world ostrich industry - the Klein Karoo Cooperative - was founded in May
>1945 and I do not recall any mention of exporting of birds in that time
>period. The USA began seriously importing birds in the early 1980's mainly
>from Namibia, Zimbabwe and Orange Free State. No ostriches came from
>Australia to the USA in the last 20 years, but it is likely that a number
of
>the birds that were imported into Australia from Canada via Cocos Islands
>were, in fact, of US origin!
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>Kind regards,
>
>
>Doug