craig Marshall
Pack Dog
Yesterday I was doing a bike review and film shoot for the new Tenere along the back roads between Elim and Struisbaai.
As luck would have it we stopped shooting for about 2 minutes and I blasted ahead a few kilometers from the film crew and stills photographer.
A lone female Ostrich was standing behind a bush on the side of the road, outside of the farm fence. As I approached it got skittish and decided to start running - right in front of the bike. If only the film crew were behind me then….
I immediately backed off the throttle and braked hard to avoid frightening it further and give it some space.
Just then it bolted to the right and straight into a barbed wire fence – I saw it get caught in the wire as it stumbled over the fence. In its attempts to stand up it got its neck tangled through the twisted strands of fence and began to panic big time.
By this time I had stopped the bike and jumped off – moving towards the panicking Ostrich slowly. Because I had full body amour, Knee and shin guards helmet and gloves, I was the only one who wouldn’t get too badly injured in the rescue. Everyone else just looked on as the bird struggled (Brave or stupid) I just had to see a stricken animal hurting its self further so I climbed over the fence a few meters away.
The film crew arrived and started rolling
The Ostrich was still kicking wildly and those Velociraptor legs came close to me a few times. The fence was completely chocking the struggling bird and I couldn’t get close to cut the fence.
There was not much I could do except wait for the Ostrich to pass out.
As the Ostrich’s eyes rolled back and it slumped to the ground unconscious – I jumped in and started untangling its neck from the fence, it still had a heartbeat and a pulse in its neck, but she lay motionless for 3 minutes after I freed her neck.
I slapped her massive breastbone a few times to get her to breath again….and she eventually started breathing again.
Within 1 minute she started moving her head and sat up in confusion.
I hopped over the fence again to safety and she stood up slowly looking around at the on lookers - then bolted off across the field.
We all cheered and it really gave me a great feeling to see her free and un-injured.
All of this was captured on HD video as well and we hope to get it onto 50/50 – one for the bikers !!!
Bottom line – if you ride in close proximity to ostriches, even when they are far away behind the fence, slow down and back off the throttle – they scare very easily
Marshall
As luck would have it we stopped shooting for about 2 minutes and I blasted ahead a few kilometers from the film crew and stills photographer.
A lone female Ostrich was standing behind a bush on the side of the road, outside of the farm fence. As I approached it got skittish and decided to start running - right in front of the bike. If only the film crew were behind me then….
I immediately backed off the throttle and braked hard to avoid frightening it further and give it some space.
Just then it bolted to the right and straight into a barbed wire fence – I saw it get caught in the wire as it stumbled over the fence. In its attempts to stand up it got its neck tangled through the twisted strands of fence and began to panic big time.
By this time I had stopped the bike and jumped off – moving towards the panicking Ostrich slowly. Because I had full body amour, Knee and shin guards helmet and gloves, I was the only one who wouldn’t get too badly injured in the rescue. Everyone else just looked on as the bird struggled (Brave or stupid) I just had to see a stricken animal hurting its self further so I climbed over the fence a few meters away.
The film crew arrived and started rolling
The Ostrich was still kicking wildly and those Velociraptor legs came close to me a few times. The fence was completely chocking the struggling bird and I couldn’t get close to cut the fence.
There was not much I could do except wait for the Ostrich to pass out.
As the Ostrich’s eyes rolled back and it slumped to the ground unconscious – I jumped in and started untangling its neck from the fence, it still had a heartbeat and a pulse in its neck, but she lay motionless for 3 minutes after I freed her neck.
I slapped her massive breastbone a few times to get her to breath again….and she eventually started breathing again.
Within 1 minute she started moving her head and sat up in confusion.
I hopped over the fence again to safety and she stood up slowly looking around at the on lookers - then bolted off across the field.
We all cheered and it really gave me a great feeling to see her free and un-injured.
All of this was captured on HD video as well and we hope to get it onto 50/50 – one for the bikers !!!
Bottom line – if you ride in close proximity to ostriches, even when they are far away behind the fence, slow down and back off the throttle – they scare very easily
Marshall
