Kiwis, anyone?

[ruralchild]

Kiwis -- the forgotten ratites. Anyone raise these? Pets?

 

[HighStreetCoop]

They're nocturnal and VERY shy. Not great "pet" material IMO (but cute as the Dickens).

 

[briefvisit]

I'd research the legality of having kiwis, Ruralchild.

se

 

[xxnativewolfxx]

im shure there are people who sell them on the black market! lol but as i know they are illegal to own as pets because they are VERY endangered

 

[ruralchild]

Didn't know it's illegal to own them. I'm glad they're being protected. I think they lay only one egg a year? And it's a good percentage of their body size! I can see how that would make them slow to breed and prevent their population from rapidly increasing.

Not even Kiwis are completely wingless. They have rudimentary wing stubs that can't be seen under all those body feathers. It's so interesting how the ratites evolved to be flightless, yet never completely lost the physical protrusions that may, at one time, have been fully developed wings, or which never fully developed into wings to begin with. Instead, they became runners and kickers.

Bird evolution is fascinating ...

 

[briefvisit]

I'll leave you to research the legalities of the kiwi thing -- but it came up in conversation a couple of years ago.

Emus exhibit a 'double vestigiality.' Before they had wings, the appendage was a claw -- and the claw is still there to be seen. Then the claw became a wing when they became birds. Then they lost the power of flight.

There is still at least one species of bird (South American?) has has both the power of flight and the claw.

SE

 

[ruralchild]

That's very interesting!