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ÑANDU DE MAGALLANES |
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Ñandu de Magallanes:
NAME (S) LOCAL (S):
Ostrich, pony ostrich, rhea, overo
DISTRIBUTION IN CHILE:
between Aisen and the Strait of Magellan.
HABITAT:
Pampas Patagonia (southern tip of South America).
DESCRIPTION:
Length: 93 cms.
Head and long neck covered by small gray-brown feathers. Large rounded body with feathers of the same color. Most of the feathers of the back and white remiges with endings. Cola almost nonexistent. Chest and abdomen whitish. Pico flat and broad, grayish brown. Long legs yellowish gray. Tarsus with 16 to 18 crowns. Brown eyes.
This bird species is resident in the Patagonian pampas between Aisen and Magallanes. In mid-1900 was introduced in Tierra del Fuego, but now is apparently eradicated from this area since the last record is from January 1981 near Cullen.
The Rhea is a bird of about 93 to 95 cm long, unfit to fly by having the wings very small, but excellent runners and can reach 70 kmph. Something visually similar to ostriches (Strucioniformes), they differ from them by being smaller, brownish gray, neck covered with feathers and have 3 toes on each foot instead of 2. They feed on grains and grasses.
Very social customs and polygamous, you can see flocks of up to 30 or 40 pieces. In the mating season the male has several females, which can put together up to 30 or even 50 eggs in one nest, which is nothing more than a depression in the ground covered with grass and twigs. The eggs are incubated by the male for 40 days, which also plays the brooding of the young, who reach maturity at 3 years.
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