Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Model birds

Everyone knows that the CGI of dinosaur movements in the Jurassic Park movies were based on bird movements. Although I do not recall the movie credits ever mentioning what kind of birds were used to provide the model for dino-motion, these here are likely candidates. 

Not that this is a park of any kind. Rather, it is the research station of the TANUVAS - Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University - at Kattupakkam. Not that I understand too much of it, but this research programme has been doing well; essentially the idea is to understand how the birds adapt to local conditions, so that commercial ostrich farming can be viable. That takes a couple of generations. With well over 60% of the ostrich eggs not hatching, it will take a while before you can get to see these take the place of chicken on the menu.

In the meantime, they continue to behave like, well, ostriches. Just because you think they bob their heads about like a velociraptor, you can't blame them for being copy-cats!



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