opinionated author wikipedia: common ostritch
I love reading wikipedia articles that are written very obviously by a single person who is highly passionate about some obscure topic. You only need to read one to understand why it’s such an awesome thing. I’m collecting these, so if you see one shoot me an email or something. This post is part of a series about such articles.
Ostritches
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_ostrich
Saved version, in case some wikipedia mod rewrites it: https://web.archive.org/web/20220205024712/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_ostrich
This one is insanely lopsided. Most (well written) wikipedia articles about animals have a section about the description of the animal, its evolutionary history, taxonomy, appearance, and behavior. And then maybe some cultural stuff, or some misc human related facts, like their cultural significance, interactions with people, or historical events or figures relating to them.
This article does have those sections, and they’re well written and informative. We have description (5 paragraphs, some pictures); taxonomy (4 paragraphs with a table); habitat (2 paragraphs); behvior (9 paragraphs and 3 subsections). All well and good.
THEN WE GET TO PHYSIOLOGY. Oh boy. Subsection, respiration: We have 2 long paragraphs about the lung anatomy, with two figures. Then we have a section strictly about the function of the lungs, with 5 paragraphs. Then, a subsection circlulation: 6 long paragraphs strictly about heart anatomy; 4 paragraphs about blood composition.
Then, a whopper of a subsection, Osmoregulation (which is.. regulation of chemical properties of the blood, right?) This subsection has 29… TWENTY NINE! long and extremely technically in-depth paragraphs describing what I imagine is absolutely everything that anyone would ever need to know about ostritch blood, lungs, and thermoregulation. A subsection notes that air can flow in either a laminar or turbulent regime through the lungs during respiration.
Following the 29 paragraphs about ostritch metabolism (at least 18 of which deal primarily with thermal regulation), there is one paragraph about the conservation status, two paragraphs about human culture w.r.t the bird, one paragraph about the “Head in the Sand Myth”, three about husbandry, one about attacks, and one about racing – which I did not know was a thing.
I really suggest also the videos on this article – some ostritch riding and one spectacular video of a large group (flock?) stampeding down a road.
I have to give this article a fantastic rating. A little heavy on thermoregulation, but otherwise, a 10/10.