IgNobel (2): Is that ostrich ogling me?

If you thought getting “goosed” was bad, consider what happens when an ostrich starts thinking of you as a potential sexual partner. That's what's happening as British farmers begin raising ostriches. Researchers think the birds imprint on their owners and stop seeing their own kind as mates.

Figure.

A study of ostrich courtship behaviour in the presence and absence of humans, published in the journal British Poultry Science, has won the 2002 IgNobel Prize for Biology (see www.improbable.com). Researcher Charlie Deeming of Lincoln, England, says: “The paper had a sound scientific basis and a very practical outcome for ostrich farmers because it highlighted how humans could interfere with the normal behaviours of ostriches.”

Observers watching the ostriches discovered that the presence of humans stimulated courtship behaviour. The males “displayed,” for example (although this can also be a territorial behaviour). Many farmed ostriches mate in front of people: the female is stimulated by the presence of a person, and the male takes advantage of the situation.

Deeming points out that farmers who don't understand that the ostriches are acting “frisky” only when people are around will wonder why they're avoiding each other the rest of the time. This is important if you're trying to breed ostriches.

Deeming is happy about his IgNobel Prize, which highlights “the point that the research did have a serious [rationale], even if it sounds odd to the outside observer. I'm just pleased that somebody read the paper, or at least the title!” — Carolyn Brown, Ottawa, Ont.