Why Ostriches on 20 British Farms Started Courting Human Farmers Instead of Each Other
Published in British Poultry Science, a peer-reviewed investigation found 68% of hand-reared ostriches performed mating dances whenever humans walked past.
1. The Mystery of Falling Fertility on UK Ostrich Farms
In the late 1990s, commercial ostrich breeders across Great Britain faced an expensive puzzle: physically healthy adult ostriches were refusing to mate with one another, leaving incubators full of infertile eggs.
Researchers N.E. Bubier, C.G.M. Paxton, P. Bowers, and Dr. D. Charles Deeming surveyed 20 British farms and published their findings in British Poultry Science (Vol. 39, 1998).
2. Psychological Imprinting: The "Kantling" Dance at the Fence
The team discovered that roughly 68% of the ostriches dropped to their knees, spread their wings, and swayed their necks in full courtship displays ("kantling") whenever a human caretaker walked beside the pen—while ignoring other ostriches.
Because the chicks had been hatched in artificial incubators and hand-fed by humans during their critical neurological imprinting window, they grew up identifying humans as their preferred mates. The study won the 2002 Ig Nobel Prize in Biology at Harvard University.
Fact-Check & Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. The paper "Courtship behaviour of ostriches (Struthio camelus) towards humans under farming conditions in Britain" was published in British Poultry Science (1998, 39:4, 477–481).