[2] In 2017, the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany discovered that common ostriches used to live in India about 25,000 years ago.

[3][4] The North African ostrich is the largest subspecies of S. camelus, at 2.74 m (9 ft 0 in) in height and up to 154 kg (340 lb) in weight.

It used to range from Ethiopia and Sudan in the east throughout the Sahel to Senegal and Mauritania in the west, and north to Egypt and southern Morocco.

[7] The North African ostrich had dramatically declined to the point where it is now included on CITES Appendix I and some treat it as Critically Endangered.

[9][10] It is planned that the red-necked ostrich will also recover in other countries from western to northeastern Africa, such as Niger and Nigeria.

A reintroduction project using the North African ostriches was set up at Mahazat as-Sayd Protected Area in 1994.

[12] It also has been reintroduced in the Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve in Israel as well and some will eventually be released in open fields of the Negev desert.