Essay of the Week 7: Ostrich and Sheep

The inspiration for this essay is the testimony from Colorado State University Professor Richard L. Knight and California rancher Mike Byrne. It's actually true: some species are still around today only because they were put on ranches as livestock. However, in most cases, overhunting is what threatened them in the first place. A few remaining Florida Pelicans and American Bison were raised on ranches for feathers or meat and that's the only reason they're still around today. There is a story out there claiming that in the 1940s Sidi Mohammed, a boy in North Africa, was raised by ostriches for a decade.