Friday, January 26, 2007

2 comments:

Famila de Pletch said...

Where in the world are the ostrich feathers from?

Tom said...

In the past, ostriches were mostly hunted and farmed for their feathers, which at various times in history have been very popular for ornamentation in fashionable clothing (such as hats during the 19th century). Their skins were also valued to make goods out of leather. In the 18th century, they were almost hunted to extinction; farming for feathers began in the 19th century. The market for feathers collapsed after World War I, but commercial farming for feathers and later for skins, took off during the 1970s.

The Arabian Ostriches in the Near and Middle East were hunted to extinction by the middle of the 20th century.