An ostrich chick looks like an odd combination of a hedgehog, a serval, and a velociraptor.

This delightful scene is currently unfolding here on the plains below the Chyulu Hills: a brood of 18 ostrich chicks.  

While they are quite obviously adorable, the odds do not favour these little balls of fluff.

Less than one in ten nests hatch, and of those that do, only 15% of chicks make it to one year. They have all manner of natural predators, including other male ostriches trying to breed with the mother.

If these chicks make it to adulthood, they could live for several decades.

But what use will that be if their habitat no longer exists?

Like many grassland species, ostriches need SPACE. The Greater Amboseli ecosystem has been a stronghold for the Masai ostrich because it has remained open and interconnected, where many others in Kenya have become choked by fences, farms, and human development. As the land around Amboseli is subdivided into tens of thousands of tiny plots, the risk of habitat loss is a serious one.

Big Life is striving ensure that this ecosystem remains interconnected for generations to come by working with communities to lease land for conservation, establish protected areas and conservancies, and maintain open wildlife corridors.

Keeping the grasslands open will give these baby chicks, and all those to come, a chance to thrive.

Video: Joshua Clay