LIFE IN THE DESERT

Imagine a creature that can survive on weeds and little water, that doesn’t mind the sun and loves the sand, whose 300-pound body yields low-fat, low-cholesterol meat that tastes like a beef tenderloin.

Imagine the ostrich.

A year ago, ostrich rancher Colin Cooper moved to Santa Barbara from South Africa and started Ostrich World with two 3-month-old chicks.

“Southern California has an ideal climate,” Cooper says. “Ostriches prefer a dry environment when they lay their eggs.” And lay they do. One hen lays 30 to 60 eggs each year for as long as 40 years. Each egg weighs nearly three pounds, the equivalent of 25 chicken eggs.

“The eggs are quite delicious,” says Cooper, 53, who is one of more than 200 Californian ostrich owners. But he doesn’t eat many of them. He incubates each fertile egg; now his herd includes 15 adult birds and 40 chicks. Cooper expects the ostrich-meat industry to take off in five to 10 years--a low-fat white meat, it seems the perfect food for the health-conscious ‘90s. (Ostriches are considered poultry by the rest of the world, and they’re far from endangered.) Ostrich hide and feathers also are in demand. So right now, Cooper raises his birds exclusively as breeding stock; 3-month-old ostrich pairs go for $5,500--a bargain if you consider that a pair of 5-year-old proven breeders sell for $60,000. No wonder Cooper doesn’t cook many ostrich-egg omelets.