Have Ostriches Pulled Off Their Own Heads?
In June 2021, a disturbing video was shared on social media that supposedly showed an ostrich decapitating itself as it struggled to free its head after it got stuck between a bar and a wall on a farm. We have not been able to source this specific footage (it was first circulated on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo and reportedly shows an incident that took place on an ostrich farm in China on June 5, 2021), but we have found a surprising number of reports of ostriches accidentally breaking their own necks (and in some cases pulling off their own heads) in a panic. The video may be disturbing to some viewers, so we wont include it here. If you want to see it for yourself (Warning: NSFW video depicting animal gore) you can watch it here. For those who would prefer not to view the video, heres a description of the incident from the Chinese-language newspaper Enanyang.my (translated roughly via Google):  A recent bloody video of an ostrich tearing its head off went viral on Weibo. The incident happened on the 5th of this month when an ostrich accidentally stuck its head into the gap between an iron rod and a wall at an ostrich farm in China. In struggling with all strength to get out of trouble, unexpectedly broke his head. The picture is shocking. It can be seen in the picture that the trapped ostrich kept backing back, trying to pull its head out of the gap, but the effect was delayed, so he kicked it back hard. Unexpectedly, this force would pull its head and neck apart. The ostrich is a large, flightless bird that stands more than 8 feet tall, and nearly half of that height is from their 3-foot-long necks. While this long and flexible neck has some benefits (an ostrich can turn its head 180 degrees in order to see potential predators), there are downsides as well. Weve found multiple reports over the years of ostriches that have accidentally killed themselves after getting their heads stuck. United Press International reported in 1935 that an ostrich at a zoological garden in Germany accidentally broke its neck while trying to reach some food outside of its cage:  24 Dec 1935, Tue Des Moines Tribune (Des Moines, Iowa) Newspapers.com  In 1997, a similar incident was reported at an ostrich farm in Florida. The Orlando Sentinel reported that a farmer was shocked and saddened when he discovered the headless body of one of their ostriches. The exact cause of death in that case is unknown, but Ed McDonough, a spokesperson for the Seminole County Sheriffs Office, said that the bird likely lost its head after it got stuck underneath a fence:  It was a clean break, too, McDonough said. Like you would pull the head off a doll  pop.  Investigators speculate the ostrich may have caught its head underneath a fence, then been stepped on by another bird. The missing part may be buried in the sandy soil, McDonough said. Reports of ostriches accidentally decapitating itself date back to at least the 1890s when Martin Annie described in their book Home Life On An Ostrich Farm how one of these big birds lost its life.