RE: Dromornithids and size limits.

["Ivan Kwan" <dino_rampage@hotmail.com>]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but how on Earth would ostriches compete with 
cheetahs? One is cursorial grazer, the other a cursorial predator. How can 
the bird compete with the mammal if the two of them fill different niches?

As far as I know, in southern and eastern Africa, ostriches are uncommon 
elements of the cheetah diet.

And cheetahs do range across northern Africa and parts of the Sahara, albeit 
in much reduced numbers. (Hunting being the main culprit.)

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: qilongia@yahoo.com
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
CC: herewiss13@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Dromornithids and size limits.
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 20:33:39 -0700 (PDT)

1. No mammal has successfully invaded a typically avian habitat, nor has
a bird, that we know of, have done the same to a mammalian habitat. This
does not mean that either is inferior to the other. Does an ostrich not
provide enough competition to prevent successful cheetah invasion into
northern Africa?

Cheers,

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making 
leaps in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We 
should all learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather 
than zoom by it.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)




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